Fist of the Sky
by Anonymaton
Summary: On one of the many starless nights on Etheria, in an event unlike any seen in over 1000 years, a meteor has struck Etheria. After a reclusive martial artist named Charra discovers the meteor to be a pod containing a tailed infant, she decides to raise her as her own, away from the conflict between the Horde and the Rebellion. But war will always find warriors, one way or another...
1. Chapter 1

**Alright, laugh it up you bastards that lurk within the eldritch algorithm of YouTube, Netflix and the internet in general, you win. You wore me down enough to break me. Are you happy? You better be, considering what you've just unleashed upon the world.**

**Creativity: You can't say you didn't see this coming. Not you, readers, you **_**definitely **_**couldn't have seen this coming.**

**Author: Alright, some context as to how this madness began. I discovered a YouTube channel called Eldena Doubleca5t via a little video series called "what your favorite ship says about you" after finally getting sick of how many times the RWBY episode kept popping up in my recommended feed. After watching that video and finding it HILAROUS (Go check this series out, it's a riot), I decided to watch them all, including one about She Ra. **

**Creativity: You can probably tell that it's about here that the algorithm smelled blood.**

**Author: Smell blood it did, and soon I was finding She Ra this and She Ra that all over my recommendations. Then I happened across a video by a content creator I already regularly watched, who had made a She Ra episode, and thought "oh, what's the harm?"**

**Creativity: Yet more blood was drawn.**

**Author: More and more videos hounding me, another content creator I watch does a video on it and THEN Netflix decides "Yep, we're gonna promote the SHIT out of this to this guy!", probably because I **_**really **_**like animation and pickings were feeling a bit slim at that point. So, I finally caved to the algorithm yet again and three binge sessions later, here we are…**

**Creativity: May we reiterate, you goblins who run the algorithms, that you have unleashed this upon the internet at large and that you must live with it… Thou hast been warned…**

**Author: So yeah, probably to my eventual regret, this is now happening. I have no clue if this will continue, considering I already have Limit Breaker, Venom: Resurgence, Before: Kingdom Hearts and a Star Wars project all happening right now, but I need to get some of this out of my system before I can get anything else done.**

**Creativity: As previously stated, THOU HAST BEEN WARNED!**

**And with that out of the way… Actually, Ima pass on the grandiose this time because despite having laid out the process for how this happened, I'm still processing it all.**

**Creativity: Here's chapter one of Fist of the Sky.**

* * *

The morning sun had just begun to creep over the mountains of Etheria, and yet Charra had already been up for half an hour before the first rays had even broken through the horizon. The moment she'd woken up, she'd gotten dressed in her short-sleeve tunic, baggy knee-length pants and long black cloth strips she wrapped around her forearms. She'd also tied back her long, black hair with a white strip of cloth to keep her hair out her vivid green eyes.

Charra had lived alone in the mountains of Etheria for quite some time. It was coming up on fifteen years now, if she remembered correctly. She stood 5' 9'', had heavily tanned and weather-beaten skin and a muscular physique borne from fifteen years of intense martial arts training and living in the mountains.

Charra stepped out of her home, a small cabin made of wooden logs that she'd constructed herself and made her way over to a large circle of dirt that had been tamped flat by many years of use for training. After ten minutes of meditation, she had begun doing some basic stretches before moving into some more complex ones. From there, she moved on to performing several katas, doing twenty repetitions of each one before moving onto the next. Each punch and every kick were well practiced and executed without flaw. Not a muscle was out of place. Finishing her final set, Charra performed a back-hand spring before leaping 15 feet into the air! As she reached the top of her arc, Charra performed a front flip and began her rapid descent before striking at the ground with a punch upon landing! The impact sent a rush of air out around her, causing the long grass around the edges of her training area to suddenly rustle. After straightening out and bowing to the land, she grabbed a towel she'd left hanging from the railing of her front stairway and wiped her brow.

"Close, but not quite there yet." She muttered to herself. She'd been trying to perfect that strike for a few months now, but she always came up short. Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

By now, the sun had risen, its rays causing her skin to shine from the sweat that clung to her, though it was somewhat hampered from all the dirt the sweat picked up from training. After taking a moment to towel off her arms, shoulders and face, it was time to get to the morning chores. Charra made her over to a pile of unchopped wood behind her cabin and grabbed several pieces before placing them near a large stump and grabbing an axe she'd left near the stump when she'd come outside for the day's training. The next hour or so was spent splitting logs and then carrying a portion of those split logs to a stockpile she had next to the cabin, while some were brought inside for her fireplace.

With all that done, it was _finally _time for breakfast, something that Charra's stomach wholeheartedly agreed with. Then there'd be what smaller chores needed to be taken care of around the house, then a trip to the river to clear the grime from training and the aforementioned chores.

After heading back into her cabin, Charra made her way over to the woodburning stove and got a fire going while grabbed an old frying pan, some butter and a few eggs she'd purchased from a nearby village before setting about frying up breakfast. After the eggs finished frying, Charra went and grabbed a loaf of brown bread and cut a few slices before quickly scraping some butter across them and bringing the slices over to her table, where her eggs were waiting. As she ate, she felt a vague pang of frustration and disappointment. She still hadn't quite found that level of consistency she preferred in eggs.

"Well, always tomorrow." Charra commented to herself as she popped the last piece of bread crust in her mouth and tended to the dishes from breakfast before looking around her cabin. It was practically pristine, considering she'd done a top to bottom scrub-down of the cabin the previous day, so there wasn't much that needed to be done on that front. She'd restocked on firewood, her pantry was looking good, what was left to do? And what was that smell?

Oh right, that smell was her, somewhat fresh from morning training. And probably her clothes as well. Nothing a trip to the river and a bit of soap wouldn't fix.

After grabbing said soap from a cabinet, she grabbed another towel, as well as a change of clothes and piled it all into a wooden basket before striding out of her cabin and walking down a natural pathway into the forest behind her cabin. She trekked for about fifteen minutes before she finally reached a large stream that ran through the mountains. It was cold, but fifteen years of using it for washing, bathing, and otherwise using it had conditioned her to not notice it anymore. In fact, she'd rather come to enjoy the chilly water. After removing the clothes, she waded into the mountain water, ignoring the goosebumps that sprang up from contact with the chilly air. After she was deep enough into the stream, she set about scrubbing the dirt, grime and sweat she'd accumulated from training before dunking herself under the water to rinse off and returning to the shore to dry up and pull on fresh clothes before doing her best to clean the dirty clothes, but there was only so much a dunk in a cold stream could do. She'd probably have to wash them tomorrow, considering her wardrobe was starting to look a bit devoid of clean clothes.

After everything was back in its basket, Charra made her way back down the path to her cabin before dragging a small wooden tub out from underneath her cabin and pulling it over to a cauldron that was suspended over a fire pit.

"Better to get it done now, while I have nothing better to do." Charra muttered to herself before she went behind her cabin to a set of rain barrels and grabbed a large wooden bucket that was hanging near those barrels. After collecting enough water from the barrels and pouring it into the cauldron, she got a fire going beneath the cauldron and retrieved a clothes horse from under the cabin while the water warmed up before she began transferring the hot water into the tub until it was full enough, then went inside to grab the soap she used for washing clothes, as well as grabbing the cloth hamper she stored clothes in need of cleaning. Once she'd brought everything outside, she dumped the clothes into the tub and got to work.

The work took longer, but soon enough all the clothes had been cleaned and were hung on the clothes horse. After dousing the fire under the cauldron and disposing of the water in the tub, she did what cleaning up she needed to take care of and looked up at the sky. It was about two hours past midday, by Charra's estimate.

"Well, what to do with the rest of my day now…" Charra wondered aloud. She could go fishing, do more training, she hadn't done any forest runs for some time so that could be interesting, there was just so much to choose from.

"Hmm… Maybe I should recheck to make sure I'm not running low on anything. There could be some stuff I should go foraging for…" Charra muttered to herself as she went inside and started going through her cupboards, cabinets and stores. To her simultaneous satisfaction and disappointment, she was sufficiently stocked up on just about everything, and what wasn't stocked up was luxury items she only occasionally used to treat herself with.

"Hm… Guess I could go to the village… No, it's too late in the day for that." Charra thought aloud as she sat at her table and pondered what to do with the remainder of her day. Eventually, she settled on focusing on the other half of her training and reached under her bed to pull out a large chest before retrieving the key out from under her pillow. She always hid it there when she was training or otherwise shouldn't keep it on her person. She carefully unlocking the chest and tilted back the lid to reveal a collection of old scrolls and leather-bound books. After a few minutes of consideration, she lifted three books from within the chest. The first one was larger and heavier, while the other two were much smaller and thin. Embossed in a silvery material across the cover of the larger book was a strange sigil, while the other two had no such decoration. Her hand hovered over one of the smaller books (this one showing much more age than the other one, bound in black leather and having yellowing pages), considering opening it for a few moments before opting to choose the larger one. After opening it, she began leafing through the pages until she found the one she was looking for and started reading. And she kept reading for quite a long time, right up until her stomach started to incessantly growl in a reminder that she'd missed lunch and that the sun was just about to begin the process of setting.

After filling a pot up with water and setting it on her wood-burning stove, she started it ablaze once more and grabbed some dried venison, roots and other greens that grew in the mountains or were otherwise purchased before placing it all on her small countertop. After all the peeling and cutting was done, the water was boiling, and she added the meat, roots and greens to the pot and stirred it a few times before retrieving a few spices from her cupboards and adding them to the stew in progress.

As she tended to the stew, she hummed a tuneless song to herself before she looked over at the books again. Specifically, her eyes lingered on one of the small ones. It was the old one again. Once again, she considered walking over to it and opening it to the first page, but instead she just hung her head, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before putting all but the other small book away. This one wasn't leather-bound like the other books. This one was wrapped in wood and cloth, with a single red ribbon for a bookmark. That one was her personal journal and she always wrote in it after dinner, so it made sense to leave it out for now.

After tending to the food for another half hour or so, she checked the contents of the pot and after testing it, decided that it was ready and ladled it out into a bowl before cutting herself some more bread and lazily scraping some butter across it. She then carried her plate of bread and the bowl of stew back to her table and ate in silence. The light had dimmed significantly, so she lit a lamp that hung over the counter, as well as a few candles. They flickered in the growing darkness as she finished scraping the bottom of the bowl before carrying it over to the sink and taking care of the dishes before grabbing a quill and inkpot and opening her journal to its current page. After a few moments of consideration, she dipped the pen in the inkpot and started to write. She wrote for what felt like hours, though she was indeed hunched over that table, writing for about two hours. By the time she looked up from her writing and out the window, the sun had long since set and the many moons of Etheria were hanging in the sky. Charra had heard stories about the stars. Her master had told her stories about them when she was little. To imagine that the sky had once been filled with tiny pinpricks of light along side the moons… It sounded enchanting.

Those were happy times when she had been so young; Learning the art of combat from a true master of the form, the excitement of what new thing he'd teach her the next day, the legends and fairy tales he would tell her before bed…

Charra hadn't realized that she'd stopped writing until she realized that there was a massive blot of ink on the page where her quill had been sitting for a few minutes now.

"I should probably get ready for bed." Charra muttered as she closed her journal and rubbed her eyes before walking over to the sink and brushing her teeth before splashing some water in her face and walking over to the candles to blow them out. She walked over to the lantern and did the same, then turned to head over to her bed. However, she couldn't help but noticed that it was strangely still slightly lit in her cabin. At it was growing brighter by the second… Looking out her window, Charra's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she saw a fireball descending from the sky towards the mountains! She watched, mesmerized as it approached evermore rapidly until it struck the ground with a thunderous _BOOM! _The ground shook and shuddered from the impact and a small gout of flame rose into the air. After being shaken (literally and metaphorically) out of her stupor, Charra rushed to the front door of her cabin and pulled on the pair of hiking boots she kept around, though rarely ever used, and ran out into the night towards the column of smoke in the distance. She at least needed to make sure that if there was fire, it didn't spread. The mountainous forests were pretty damp, so that was in her favor, but she still didn't want to take chances.

As she scaled boulders, vaulted over fallen branches and sprinted through the undergrowth, Charra wasn't sure what she was going to find. No meteors had struck Etheria in ages, so she had no idea where this one could have come from. Perhaps it would be some sort of valuable mineral, or even just something interesting she could put on a shelf in her cabin. However, what she instead found was not what she was expecting at all.

Resting in the middle of a crater that was about twenty feet in diameter and three feet deep was a large, spherical pod. It was mostly silver, but there was a single red disk on the front that was mostly transparent. There were small flames scattered about the crash site, but nothing close to foliage and it was all dying slowly. Charra approached the pod with apprehension before peering in through the window and her breath caught in her throat. Inside the pod was a bawling infant!

Frantically searching for some method of opening the pod, Charra finally found a button that caused the pod to open with a hiss and a puff of vapor. From there, she reached in and scooped the baby out of the pod before hurrying out of the crater. The infant hadn't ceased crying since she pulled it from the crashed machine, but that was slowly changing.

After taking a quick glance at crash site, she was relieved to see that the small pockets of fire had all but died down already, but she still kicked some dirt over them for good measure. Once she was satisfied there wasn't any danger of a forest fire, Charra hurried back to her cabin, re-lighting the lantern and candles so she could take a closer look at the infant.

The baby was female and already had a full head of hair, and lots of it. It was black, long and wildly spiky. Her eyes cracked open a bit, to reveal that her iris' were completely black in color. However, there was one trait that was far more eye-catching than the wild mane of hair, and that was the brown monkey tail that was currently curled around Charra's arm.

"Where did you come from, little one?" Charra muttered as the onyx orbs looked up into her own green eyes. The infant burbled a bit and began slowly reaching up with one hand. Charra let the infant grasp one of her fingers and was surprised to find that the little one had a surprisingly strong grip for her age. Even the tail that was coiled around her arm had a firm grip.

Charra sat down on her bed, the baby still resting in her arm, eyes looking around at everything in wonder.

"What do I do with you?" Charra wondered aloud. She didn't know how to raise a child. She wasn't equipped to raise a child either! And yet, she wasn't sure what else she could do. There was a nearby village, but she still didn't feel right just handing the baby off to someone else, especially considering…

"_Sigh…_ I guess things come full circle in the end." Charra murmured, a hint of sorrow in her voice, but there was also a ghost of a smile playing at her lips.

"I suppose its time I take the roll of master." She stated as the infant's gaze turned back to Charra. Charra felt the infant's strong grip again on her finger and smiled a bit at the girl in her arms.

"Master named me Charra because he saw 'a fire that would burn through any foe' in me… What do I see in you…?" Charra wondered as she looked into the infants eyes. After a few minutes, she smiled. The baby laughed a bit.

"I think I know what master meant now. I see the strength of the mightiest steel in you. I think I'll name you… Ferah."

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it for now.**

**Creativity: Wait, wait, what? When are we gonna get to the actual show?!**

**Author: It's called 'getting the readers invested' and that means TAKING YOUR TIME!**

**Creativity: I thought you were incredibly impatient.**

**Author: I am, but I try to not let that get in the way of writing. No matter how FRUSTRATING it may be, I try to cover my bases, dot the i's, cross the t's and keep the corners uncut.**

**So yeah, that's where we're leaving Fist of the Sky for now. I hope you all enjoyed this brief digression from my usual stuff, and if this is the first story of mine you've discovered, perhaps considering checking out Limit Breaker: my RWBY/DBZ story and my most popular story by a landslide. And while you're at it, perhaps consider reading Before: Kingdom Hearts for a KH fix, Venom: Resurgence if you enjoy symbiotes and post-apocalypses, or A Very Bad Idea for you're Godzilla Monsterverse fun!**

**Creativity: Are you done shilling?**

**Author: Oh leave it alone. If you want me to offer endorsements of other stuff on the site… Actually, that's not a bad idea. Give a bit of a booster to projects in early phase.**

**Maybe y'all can let me know if that sounds like a good idea.**

**Well, I think that's just about it for now. Thank you for reading, please review and we'll see you next time! Maybe… this is mostly just in the concept phase right now.**

**Okay, I'm gone for real this time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Greetings all, and welcome to chapter two of Fist of the Sky! **

**Creativity: Because apparently, we're just complete suckers for punishment when it comes to project loads.**

**Author: Hey, it's not that bad. Yet… Could get worse if this actually ends up taking off the way Limit Breaker has…**

**Anyway, I obviously have a decent chunk of this whole thing plotted out already, so it would be remiss of me to not at least get a few more chapters out there before I go dark for a little while. Oh, and that's just an eventuality. I've got a ton of projects, plus college and the inevitability of a job in the future, so that's just what's going to happen. BUT, that won't stop me! It'll only delay me.**

**Creativity: Can't help but feel we're making the AN's shorter than the norm.**

**Author: Yeah, I'm experimenting a bit with this one. But enough about that, you all are here for the next chapter! So, here it is: chapter 2 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

"Ferah, it's time to get going!"

"Aw, can't I just train? I won't go into the forest this time!"

"No, you need to be there for measurements! Otherwise, you could get new clothes that are to tight at the stomach, too long at the sleeves and don't come up to your knees."

"Awww…"

Charra stood at the foot of the pathway that led through the mountains to a nearby village as she waited for a six year old girl dressed in slightly too small clothes, consisting of a blue undershirt, light grey sleeveless gi and pants of the same color. Wrapped around her right bicep was a strip of green cloth, tied in a neat knot. Charra could see the resigned expression underneath the head of spiky black hair, further indicated by the flicking and twitching of the girl's brown tail.

"Don't look so down. We can stop by Lara's for some sweet rocks on the way home." Charra idly mentioned, smiling a bit when she saw the girl's disposition change on a dime.

"Okay! Let's go!" She said with a wide smile. Charra's own smile grew. Aside from training and food, the best way to cheer Ferah up was to indulge her sweet tooth. Though, that could apply to her love of food as well, now that Charra thought about it. It was certainly safer to appeal to the sweet tooth, since that was just a treat instead of a whole meal. When Charra had first seen how much food Ferah could eat in one sitting, she almost had a heart attack on the spot. Luckily she'd managed to find the right amount of food so that Ferah could get her fill, and they wouldn't need to worry about having a perpetually empty pantry and possibly hunting the local deer, fish and other animal populations to extinction.

As the girl and her caretaker strolled down the forest path, Charra reminisced a bit on the previous few years with Ferah. She'd known that Ferah wasn't an ordinary child, given the fact that she'd been in a metal pod when she crashed here as well as the monkey tail, but those had only been a sign of things to come. As Ferah had gotten old enough to crawl, and eventually walk, Charra realized that Ferah's strength was well beyond that of what would be considered 'normal' for your average Etherian. A few examples of this were her being able to drag Charra's chest of books and scrolls out from under the bed when she was only two years old. It took a lot of effort, but she had eventually gotten it all the way out from under the bed. Plus, there was the time she flipped over one of the dining table chairs during a tantrum, that'd been disconcerting.

Perhaps the moment that had cemented their relationship was when Ferah was three years old and was actively watching her surrogate mother training outside. Charra had been downright religious about keeping Ferah within arm's reach when going outside, since her cabin was built relatively close to some cliffs. She'd considered trying to move into the village for some time, but had a feeling it would be better to raise Ferah away from all that. So, she'd constructed a playpen of sorts outside so that she could do her daily training without having to leave Ferah unattended. However, on the first day she'd decided to let Ferah explore around the training ground, the little one had instead watched Charra intently as she went through a few katas. After a few minutes, Charra paused after performing a roundhouse kick and was floored to see Ferah had started mimicking her motions, performing the basic katas that Charra used to warm up with remarkable results, considering Ferah's age.

After a few minutes of watching Ferah performing the motions with a feeling of immense pride, as well as a watery feeling in her eyes, Charra decided to begin training Ferah in the same fighting style that her master had taught her: the Sora no Ken, or Fist of the Sky.

As time had gone on, Charra had seen Ferah's curiosity and excitement at learning become a true passion for fighting. She loved learning new techniques in the style, and she loved even more the opportunity to test them. Charra loved it too. She loved the time spent instructing her pupil, no, her daughter in the fighting style she grew up learning and loving the learning of. She wondered if her own master had felt like this when he started training her.

That wasn't to say that there weren't bumps in the road. Namely, there was the issue of control. Ferah's incredible strength could quite easily lead to her hurting someone, accidentally or otherwise. So, much of the training Charra put Ferah through was to control her strength so that she didn't accidentally break someone's bones, or worse. After she'd accidentally sent Charra flying with too strong a punch one time when she was four, Ferah had really taken the importance of those lessons to heart. She hadn't seriously hurt Charra, just bruised and winded her, but it had still been such scary enough that she'd had a brief period of a few days where she didn't want to practice martial arts anymore, fearing her own strength. However, she'd gotten over it with some assurance and encouragement from Charra, and when they did start training to control strength, Ferah had thrown herself into the challenge with newfound gusto.

Charra's thoughts were interrupted when they breached the treeline and found themselves looking down at the village from the foot of the mountain.

"Now, you're going to behave yourself this time?" Charra asked.

"Yes, ma." Ferah replied in a happy tone.

"You aren't going to run off again and get your tail caught in a fence again?" Charra continued. She saw Ferah's tail droop a bit as she lowered her head in embarrassment.

"Yes, ma…" She muttered. Charra grinned.

"Well then… race ya there!" She exclaimed before taking off at a run! Ferah yelped in surprise before booking it after Charra.

"No fair, you got a head start!" Ferah cried as she ran as fast as her six year old legs could carry her. It didn't matter how strong she was for her age, she wouldn't be winning any footraces against Charra, regardless of whether Charra had a head start or not.

"Well you better pick up the pace then!" Charra called back with a laugh. The two ran the whole rest of the way before finally coming to a screeching halt just outside the village. Ferah was glaring at Charra, trying her best to be intimidating, but all it was serving to do was make Charra want to laugh.

"You cheated." Ferah complained. Charra smiled and bent down to eyelevel with the six year old.

"Would an extra sweet rock make you feel better?" Charra offered in a leading tone. Like clockwork, Ferah was smiling again. Charra affectionately ruffled Ferah's hair, causing the six year old to start trying to bat the offending hand away and the two began making their way over to the local tailor. Ferah was in need of some new clothes, since she'd undergone another growth spurt recently. That was another strange thing. Ferah didn't really have a consistent pattern of growth. Every once and a while, she'd suddenly shoot up a few inches seemingly overnight. On the one hand, it meant that she didn't need new clothes as often as other children would. On the other, it quickly became a necessity to get new clothes as soon as Ferah mentioned feeling growing pains.

Soon enough, they reached the tailor's shop, run be a lovely old woman named Kalli, who knew exactly what they were there for when she saw Charra and Ferah walk through the door.

Kalli was probably the most elderly of the residents of the village, having been here for thirty years out of her total seventy five. She'd come here after her previous home had become a casualty in the war between the Horde and Rebellion. While she held no ill will towards the Rebellion, after all, they weren't kidnapping children or trampling over the land like tyrants, Kalli had absolutely no interest in the war, something Charra could sympathize with.

She was a little on the shorter side, with gray hair being tied up in a bun and thick, round glasses covering blue eyes. She always wore an old red robe and dark green sash, with and orange tunic and floor-length skirt underneath.

"The little weed shoot up a few inches again?" Kalli asked in a welcoming tone as she walked over to a full-length mirror and pulling a stool up for Ferah.

"How'd you guess?" Charra replied in a friendly tone. At Kalli's gesture, Ferah hurried over to the stool and hopped atop it. Kalli hobbled over and adjust Ferah's arms before she began taking measurements with the measuring tape she always wore around her neck.

"Do you want any change in color, deary?" Kalli asked as she jotted down the measurements on a small sheet of paper.

"No. I like these ones." Ferah replied politely as Kalli went and grabbed a familiar ensemble. After bringing over the larger copies of Ferah's current clothes and putting them in the change room, Ferah hurried inside and started getting changed. While they waited, Kalli and Charra idly chatted.

"She's been good for you, you know?" Kalli stated. Charra made a 'hm' noise, which Kalli took as an invitation to continue

"I was always worried about you a bit for those first few years when you showed up. You went into the mountains and stayed there for months before you started coming down every once and a while for supplies. You always looked a bit angry, at least for those first few years." Kalli told her. Charra frowned a bit. Kalli wasn't exactly wrong. It had been… tough back then.

"Then you stopped being angry and just looked tired all the time. You got better, but I could still see that same sadness and exhaustion." Kalli continued. Once again, not wrong though Charra.

"Then one day you showed up in town with a sling across your front and a baby inside it, claiming you'd found it in the middle of the woods! And after that, seeing you come here with her, always with a smile on your face… Well, it's heartwarming to this little old lady." Kalli concluded with a smile on her face. Once again, Charra couldn't help but agree. There'd rarely been a moment she hadn't been happy with Ferah around. Training her, teaching her, just having her around brought her joy.

"I'd maybe stay out of town for the next few days. Jars says he saw a Horde heading east. It looks like they'll pass us by, but I'd err on the side of caution if I were you." Karri suggested in an undertone. Charra immediately frowned as she felt her heartbeat speed up a few beats at the mention of that. She had no doubt that if the Horde caught wind of Ferah, or even just that someone matching her own description, the Horde would come gunning for them. And she was not going to let them within 100 feet of Ferah while she still drew breath.

"I think it's a little long."

Charra was snapped out of her thoughts by a familiar voice drawing her gaze down. She had to agree, that the sleeves for both the shirt and pants did look a tad too long, but that was nothing that Kalli couldn't fix in jiffy.

"Alright dear, just hope up on the stool and I'll handle the rest." Kalli ordered Ferah, who did just that. As Kalli resumed her work, Charra started thinking about the news of a Horde contingent moving through the area. If this had been about ten years ago, she'd have probably marched out that door at the mention of the Horde and gone to fight them all singlehandedly. And that wouldn't have ended well, even if she did come out of it victorious.

However, this wasn't ten years ago. Those ten years spent training in the mountains, studying and learning everything she could from the writings of her master and the masters before him, and over those years, had finally come to the conclusion that going after the Horde wasn't going to get her what she wanted. Of course, that left her with the question of what she did want. At least until six years ago, when she found Ferah in the woods.

"Alright, that'll about do it. You two run along and I'll have everything ready for you when you get back." Kalli told them in a chipper tone before she carried the clothes back behind her counter and got to work.

"Sweet rocks?" Ferah immediately asked hopefully. Charra smiled.

"Well, what else would we do?" She asked in a teasing tone as they left the shop and made their way down the street to Lara's Sweet Shop. It was no surprise that the majority of the village's children were lingering around the shop, looking in at the many delectable treats on display.

As they entered the shop, the owner, obviously named Lara, smiled welcomingly at them. Lara was in her early forties and had grown up in the village before leaving to do a bit of traveling. She had lightly tanned skin, light brown hair, hazel eyes and almost always had a smile on her face.

Lara had come back to the village only a couple months after Charra had arrived and had immediately set about opening a sweet shop. When asked about the sudden drive to open the shop, she explained that over the course of her travels, she'd learned how to make simple candies like the sweet rocks, which were mixtures of sugar and syrup blended together in boiling water and left to crystalize on sticks.

"Well, isn't this a welcome surprise! Let me guess, you're here for…" Lara started before pausing to invite Ferah to finish the sentence.

"Sweet rocks!" Ferah answered with massive smile plastered across her face. Lara smiled back as Ferah hurried up to the glass display and looked at the candy in question with wide eyes and an eager grin.

"We'll get three today." Charra told Lara as she withdrew the requisite amount of coins from a pouch she kept in her gi and deposited them on the counter. Lara already had the pieces of candy ready and handed them to Charra and quickly counted up the coins before depositing them in her register with a smile.

"Well, you two have a wonderful day!" Lara bade them farewell as they stepped out of the shop. Charra immediately handed one of the candies to Ferah, who eagerly took it and began to attack it with gusto.

"And what do you say?" Charra asked in a leading tone.

"Thanks, ma." Ferah immediately said in a chipper voice. After finding a bench to sit down on they simply sat in silence, enjoying the candy and simply watching the day go by in the town. It was nice to have a day like this; hiking out of the mountains, coming to the town and simply taking in the different surroundings while enjoying some candy.

"Ma, can I have the last one?"

Charra looked down at Ferah, who was pointing at the last sweet rock.

"Let's save that for when we get home. Remember the last time you ate too much candy to quickly?" Charra asked, her voice dropping to a performatively ominous tone. Ferah's eyes widened with fear.

"No, I don't want that to happen again!" She yelped in terror. Charra smiled and ruffled Ferah's hair.

"I didn't think so. Let's get going. Kalli's probably done with your new clothes now." Charra told Ferah, and the two of them made their way back to Kalli's shop to pick up the clothes. After they stepped inside, Kalli turned around from where she'd been working at her counter and put her hands on her hips.

"I know I didn't exactly give you a definitive time, but you sure kept an old lady waiting." Kalli groused, though Charra could tell it was all for fun. She'd known Kalli long enough to know she wasn't really that impatient.

"These should last until the little miss finds another growing potion." Joked as she handed them a bag with Ferah's new clothes in it.

"Thanks for handling this on such short notice." Charra told Kalli gratefully as she handed over the usual fee.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad. Well, have a safe trip back home! Oh, and enjoy the moons tonight!" Kalli bade them farewell as they were just about to step out the door. Charra felt her heart jump for a moment but gave no sign of her surprise.

"We will. Have a good day!" She called back before they started departed. She knew she'd been forgetting something important earlier that day. Tonight was the night of three moons, an event that came about thrice a year. It was so named because the same three of Etheria's eleven moons would come into near perfect alignment in the night skies. While not as impressive as the very occasional night of seven moons or the mythical night of eleven, it was still an event that many across Etheria commemorated with their own small traditions. In a way, Charra supposed they similarly commemorated it, though it wasn't through anything particularly fun. Instead, Ferah had to wear a blindfold for the whole night and Charra covered all the windows until morning.

The reason for this was an incident that happened when Ferah was two years old. Charra wanted to show her the three moons, so she took her to a special location she'd found higher up in the mountains. She was glad she'd picked a place far from home, since when Ferah looked upon the three moons, she suddenly went limp as she looked at them. And then, things got weird.

Ferah's heart began to beat harder and harder and she started to… change. Before Charra had time to process it, Ferah had transformed from a two year old child into a towering, monstrous ape! Ferah had then gone on a short-lived rampage through the mountains, smashing trees and rocks and causing the local wildlife to flee in terror! Luckily, the transformation didn't last very long. Once the moons had separated enough (a few hours after alignment) the transformation wore off and Charra found an unconscious Ferah lying in the middle of a giant footprint. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had triggered the transformation. Ferah had been outside for a few nights and seen different combinations of moons in the sky. However, it was those three specific moons in that alignment that had triggered the transformation.

From that point on, Charra had been strict on keeping Ferah from being exposed to the night of three moons at all costs. It was obvious that she wasn't in control of herself when the transformation occurred, and Charra had no idea if Ferah would ever be able to control herself in the event she ever transformed again. Ferah wasn't sure why Charra had her blindfold herself three times a year, but she didn't question it. By now, it was just part of how things were to her.

The walk home was uneventful, but Charra did have a sense of urgency now that she remembered what tonight was. When they got home, the time was approximately four in the afternoon. So, it was time to start on Ferah's basic education. The six year old braced against learning basic math, reading and writing, complaining that training was more fun, but Charra wouldn't be swayed. These were important skills for everyone to learn, regardless of what path in life they wanted to take. After having her practice her letters and writing some simple sentences for an hour, Charra got to work on dinner while letting Ferah enjoy the sweet rock she'd been promised. As the time passed with relative silence, Charra began wondering how she could possibly increase Ferah's motivation to put more effort into her academic studies. Well, there was one obvious solution, and that was to tie her love of fighting to learning. Somehow…

She supposed she could try showing her the notes and scrolls about the Sora no Ken she kept in the chest but doing so would just prove a temptation for Ferah to break into the chest and start learning as much as she could, and while Charra found that enthusiasm endearing, she knew that Ferah wasn't ready for that level yet. Though she was approaching it quickly. Charra gave Ferah three, maybe four more years before she was ready for what set the Sora no Ken fighting style apart from others.

"Ma, does something smell funny to you?"

Charra resisted the urge to employ a few choice curses as she realized that dinner was beginning to burn. Luckily, Ferah's warning proved to be enough for her to save it, and after setting the stew on the cold side of the stovetop, she grabbed a pair of bowls and cut up many slices of bread before buttering them and doling out the stew for the two of them.

Charra was the first to finish her meal, though that wasn't very surprising. Ferah regularly ate at least thrice what Charra did, even if she did eat pretty fast. Where all that food went, Charra couldn't begin to guess, but Ferah never seemed to gain any weight from it. Of course, when you knew that she could also turn into a giant, rampaging monkey under the light of three moons in a specific alignment, you stopped questioning the other strange thing about her. While Ferah finished eating, Charra set about covering the windows with spare sheets and making sure they were secured before finding Ferah's blindfold. It was an old black strip of cloth that still had a few of Ferah's black hairs sticking to it from years of use.

After Ferah finished off the contents of her bowl, and implicitly the contents of the entire pot as well as the bread, she saw what Charra had been up to and immediately grabbed the blindfold and tied it around her eyes. She'd become quite used to having the blindfold after all these years and could navigate her way through the cabin without difficulty.

As the sun continued to set, the two of them sat on Charra's bed as she told Ferah stories that her master had told her when she was Ferah's age. She was in the middle of one of her favorites that her master used to tell her; How his master before him had defeated a beast of the Whispering Woods with his bare hands.

"… And so, the Great Master Akar rose to his feet as the monster shrieked at him. He glared at the beast with no fear in his eyes, for he knew that the beast did not fear him, and that would be its downfall. It charged him, every step shaking the ground beneath him. As the creature prepared to devour him in one bite, he leapt over its jaws and unleashed his might with the Thunderstrike kick!" Charra exclaimed. Even though she couldn't see them, she knew that Ferah's eyes were filled with wonder and excitement.

"With that definitive strike, the beast was defeated, and the travelers saved from its rampage! They tried to offer rewards to Master Akar, but he merely refused and continued on his way. All he needed was to know that the people were saved." Charra concluded, smiling at how enraptured Ferah had been with the story.

"I hope I can be as strong as Master Akar was!" Ferah exclaimed as she and Charra went to the sink to brush their teeth before bed.

"I said the same thing when I was your age." Charra replied with a smile. Ferah looked up at her, regardless of the blindfold.

"Are you?" She asked. Charra paused.

"I wouldn't say I'm quite there yet. After all, Master Akar was much older than I am when he defeated the beast of the Whispering Woods." Charra answered, doing her performative ominous voice when referring to the monster. Ferah giggled a bit at Charra's antics, drawing another smile from the woman.

"But, I also remember something my master used to tell me all the time. 'you cannot be strong like me. You can only be strong like you'." Charra concluded. Ferah didn't quite understand what it meant, but it sounded important, so she repeated it a few times in her head to remember it.

"What was your master like?" She suddenly asked. Charra paused. She hadn't brought her master up with Ferah very often, and she'd never asked further about him before.

"He was… Amazing. He was so strong, strict but kind… He wasn't above the occasional practical joke. I remember this one time when one of the students pranked another by filling his room with spiders. The master responded by releasing a few snakes into the first student's room while he was asleep. We could hear him scream from across the dojo… But he still cared for all of us, regardless of the trouble we caused… I really miss him." She said after a few moments of silence.

"Alright, that's enough talking! It's late, and we have extra training to do tomorrow to make up for today!" Charra announced, getting a 'yippee!' from Ferah, who immediately hurried to her own little bed and crawled under the covers. Charra walked over to her and gave her a quick kiss on the head, then went around putting out the lantern and candles before climbing into her own bed. It wasn't until hearing Ferah's own light snores before she nodded off herself. After all, tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

* * *

**And we're done! Not quite as far as I thought we'd get, but I think having a whole chapter of just Charra and Ferah is better for the pacing and getting people invested in their relationship.**

**Creativity: Yeah, but people are gonna start wondering when the plot is going to start.**

**Author: Ah, they'll be fine. **

**So, not much left to say here. Thank you for reading, please review, and we'll see you next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, didn't think I'd be coming back to this so soon, but I've done about as much studying as me brain can handle, and I need to do something to wake up again. **

**Creativity: No kidding. Plus, revelling in having completed season 1 of Before: KH hasn't died down.**

**Author: Word. **

**Creativity: So, since we've got all this extra revelry, you think we could…**

**Author: No.**

**Creativity: Oh, come on!**

**Author: No one cares about your campfire story aspirations.**

**Creativity: People care! Remember the one I smuggled into Limit Breaker? That one went over well!**

**Author: Okay, fair point. Still, where exactly would we put them?**

**Creativity: Ah… oh… There's… Fine, you win this one.**

**Author: Thank you. Now then, what were we going to do before the chapter started proper?**

**Creativity: possible mistakes.**

**Author: Right! So, one reader mentioned that Etheria had eleven moons, not seven. I haven't been able to verify that so far, as I don't want to backtrack through the entire show for it and online sources have been virtually non-existent, save for one image of Etheria, in which I was able to count seven moons. If someone can provide me a source that confirms whatever the number of moons is, PLEASE DO!**

**Creativity: And… That's about it! Do we want to go into more detail on the Oozaru thing?**

**Author: Might as well. So, for those curious about why I chose to have a combination of three of Etheria's moons be the trigger for the Oozaru form, the answer is because Etheria has lots of moons and no sun. So, if I wanted the Oozaru form to be present in this story at all (and I do), that meant changing the rules a bit. Plus, having the characters worry about city destroying were-kong is better than worrying about it every night, or none at all. **

**Well, that's enough of that! Time for the chapter proper! *ahem*… We now proudly present chapter 3 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

"RAH! GYAH!"

"Better! Much better! However, your landing is still a bit off-balance."

Charra watched as Ferah drilled through a series of spinning and leaping kicks, each repetition showing visible improvement, no matter how minute. If this current pace kept up, she'd be learning some of the more… advanced techniques of the Sora no Ken in no time!

Ferah was ten years old now, though you wouldn't necessarily know that by looking at her, given that her peculiar growth spurts seemed to have slowed down in the last two years, leaving her around 4' 1''. Still, she was very much a ten year old in behaviour, if not in body.

Despite her constant complaining about it, her schooling had gone quite well, managing to keep pace with other children her age in terms of basic education. Charra hadn't told her about the scrolls yet, though she suspected that she would be doing just that later this week, considering she was running out of material to teach her in terms of martial arts. There was some small part of Charra that was a bit envious of Ferah's natural talent, but that tiny part was always stamped down by how much pride she had in Ferah for her dedication to learning the art of combat.

That didn't mean she won when they sparred though. Despite the gap in their strength having widened in Ferah's favor, Charra still had experience and decades more training than Ferah, which regularly led to Charra's victories when they sparred.

Ferah huffed as she got herself set up for another attempt. She stepped forward, leaning sideways as she spun her heel around in a vertical arc before she quickly switched to the other leg for a follow-up kick of the same variety before leaping into the air and swinging one leg around before switching to the other during a second spin, then she landed solidly on both feet with a slight bounce in her step. Charra was grinning ear to ear while resisting the urge to start hopping from foot to foot like an excited schoolgirl.

"That was it! That was perfect!" Charra exclaimed excitedly as Ferah's face lit up with excitement and pride.

"What's next?" Ferah asked, only for Charra to tut her.

"What's the first rule of mastering martial arts?" Charra asked the ten-year old.

"Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you never get it wrong." Ferah recited before taking up the same position as before and waited a moment longer before launching into the set again, whirling through the air like a deadly pinwheel of pain. After a few more repetitions, Charra decided enough was enough. Ferah wasn't going to perfect that combination any more today. Oh, it was more than certain she'd improve, but there was a cap that would be reached when you were ten years old.

Still, as time was wearing on, Charra realized that introducing the scrolls to Ferah was probably a bad idea. While she was undoubtedly ready (or at least close to ready) to learn the more advanced techniques, Ferah's curiosity and desire to learn more about martial arts would almost certainly get the better of her if she learned about what Charra kept locked in that chest under her bed. And while Ferah could most certainly learn plenty from the scrolls and books, Charra also knew that a good number of those techniques were ones that were years beyond Ferah right now, and that attempting them would likely end with broken bones, or far, far worse.

"Well, there goes that idea of getting her more interested in reading." Charra muttered under her breath as Ferah finished yet another set of kicks.

"Alright, I think that's enough for now. At this rate, I'm going to run out of things to teach you before you're sixteen!" Charra said with performative exasperation. Ferah rubbed the back of her head as a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

"But I'm not out of things to teach you yet. Let's do a bit of sparring, then it's probably time for us to take a trip to the river." Charra suggested. Ferah nodded excitedly and took up her standard fighting stance, one leg extended forward, one arm bent in front of her, the other arm held in front of her chest with both hands held open. Charra's stance was similar, but with one arm held up over her head instead of across her front like Ferah. Additionally, her hands were clenched into fists.

"Begin!" Charra declared, already prepared for Ferah's opening attack. Ferah had a habit of always taking the first attack, and it was often a low or high kick. And today was no different, as Ferah opened with the same combination that she'd been practicing. Charra easily blocked or otherwise redirected the attacks before skipping back and watching as Ferah came in with a palm heel strike. Charra knocked it aside and grabbed Ferah's gi and spun her around before pinning her to the ground. Ferah groaned as Charra helped her up, chuckling.

"Why can't I ever win?" She complained as she dusted herself off.

"Well, I can see you coming, for one. You always open with a high or low kick, remember?" Charra pointed out.

"I was hoping you'd think I was gonna try something different this time…" Ferah muttered. Charra ruffled Ferah's hair and took up her stance again. Ferah moved back to her own starting position and assumed ready position.

"Begin!" Charra declared again. This time, Ferah shuffled forward carefully. Charra eyed her student carefully. If she really was trying to shake things up this time, it would do to stay on guard. Ferah edged a bit closer, doing a few feinting lunges to try and prompt a response from Charra. When she didn't get one, she suddenly lunged forward with a straight punch that Charra blocked before going for a leg sweep. Ferah jumped back and rushed forward again, this time going for another palm heel strike to the abdomen. Charra saw this coming though and caught Ferah's arm before twisting her arm behind her back and pinning her again.

"Aww, I thought I had you that time!" Ferah complained again as she got to her feet before dusting herself off again. Charra laughed again.

"Sorry, kiddo. You're still at least a decade out from beating me." Charra prodded. Needless to say, Ferah took that as a challenge as sparring continued. They kept going for another hour before Charra finally decided that they were covered in enough sweat and dirt that it was time to call it for the day. And Ferah still hadn't gotten a win in yet. She'd come closer than before, but still not enough to make Charra think that she was actually going to lose.

After collecting everything they needed for bathing, master and student walked down the pathway through the forest until they reached the stream. After climbing out of the dirty and sweat-soaked clothes, they quickly got into the water and took a moment to appreciate the sensation of _clean _that came with it before they got to work on scrubbing off the remaining dirt and sweat before hurrying out of the mountain water to towel off and change into clean clothes. Then it was time to head home.

"Ma?" Ferah suddenly said.

"Hm?" Charra replied as an invitation to continue.

"When we were in town a couple of days ago, I heard a couple of the adults talking about something called "the Horde" and "the Rebellion." They seemed angry and scared." Ferah shared, the curiosity in her voice intermixed with tones that indicated Ferah felt unsure about asking about this. Charra's mind raced, trying to think of a way to explain all this to Ferah, before she decided it was better to just bite the bullet and explain it. But not out here.

"I'll explain it when we get back to the cabin, okay? It's kind of… complicated" Charra told Ferah, who didn't look reassured. The rest of the walk back was silent, and a bit awkward until they got home, whereupon Charra locked the door behind them. She wasn't even sure why she would do that, considering they lived about as out of the way as one could get. Still, the subject of the war between the Horde and the Rebellion was one best left behind closed doors, especially out here, where people generally didn't engage with the war if they could help it.

"Ferah, sit down. Explaining all this could take a while." Charra told Ferah, who looked a little afraid, but did what she was told and sat down on one of the dinner table's chairs. Charra grabbed on of the other chairs and dragged it around so that she could sit facing Ferah. After taking said seat, Ferah took a deep breath.

"Somehow, I thought that I could avoid telling you about all this until you were old enough, but I don't think I ever had an idea of what old enough meant." Charra muttered with a humorless laugh before she decided to try again.

"Ferah, I need you to understand that what I'm going to try and explain is that while this is, in a way, about fighting, it's not the kind of fighting I'm teaching you. It's not about self defence or even a way of life. It's different and it's something I wanted to keep you out of if I could." Charra began. Ferah looked more unsure, but she made no move to try and stop Charra.

"Right now, there's a war being waged across all of Etheria between the Horde and the Rebellion. The Horde is attempting to take over the whole world and the Rebellion is trying to stop them. Many not already under the Horde's control and even some within it call it 'The Evil Horde', and make no mistake, they are evil. They trample across the land, raze it for resources and leave devastation and pollution in their wake." Charra continued. She saw Ferah's tail begin to curl around her waste. She did that instinctively when she was scared or uncomfortable.

"But if they're so bad, why aren't people stopping them?" Ferah asked. Charra sighed sadly.

"There are people trying. Lots of people, in fact. The problem is that the Horde is relentless and has several advantages already. Plus, it just doesn't change the fact that this war has been going on for so long that many people are tired of it and just want the fighting to end. They feel that the Horde's too much to stop now. There just isn't the same spirit for it anymore." Charra answered. Ferah's head drooped a bit.

"But… Things would be bad if the Horde won, right? Don't people want to stop that?" Ferah asked again. Charra rubbed her brow.

"Even if people know that the Horde winning is bad, they've given up hope that the Horde _can _be stopped." Charra tried again. Ferah frowned.

"We could help, couldn't we? I'm so strong and you're even stronger!" Ferah said, but Charra shook her head.

"You are far too young to be fighting the Horde, young lady. I can't stop you once you're old enough, but it will be a cold day in… _sigh…_ I just don't want to lose you to them too…" Charra reprimanded before the brief fire went out. However, it seemed Ferah picked up on that last sentence more much more than Charra realized.

"Did the Horde hurt someone you know?" Ferah asked, though she sounded like she was expecting a scolding from the question.

"I… Yes… When I was younger I lost someone very important to me because of the Horde. I was so angry for so long, fighting the Horde at every chance I could get… I got hurt a lot and I hurt other people too. Then I tried to fight one of the Horde's commanders and I got hurt really badly. When I got better, I came here to train and get stronger so that I could… Eventually I realized that the revenge I wanted wouldn't bring me peace, and that I was only hurting myself more by pursuing it." Charra shared, shame evident in her voice at points in the story.

"But, if you didn't want revenge, why didn't you go back to help people?" Ferah asked. Charra smiled a bit sadly at Ferah.

"Because if I was to go back and start fighting the Horde again, revenge would just creep back in. I can't go after the Horde anymore without that desire rising up again and I could lose myself to it." Charra explained. She suspected that Ferah wouldn't understand what she meant quite yet, but it she felt that the words were important to say, regardless.

"What about the Rebellion? You didn't talk much about them." Ferah asked suddenly, snapping Charra out her thoughts. Ferah was right, she hadn't talked about them yet.

"Well, it was originally founded by the princesses of the nations of Etheria as an Alliance, but during a critical battle, things went bad… really bad… Things weren't the same after that. Many of the kingdoms withdrew from the alliance and have stuck to defending their own borders ever since. Like I said, the war's taken its toll on everyone…" Charra explained. Ferah frowned, clearly not liking that the fact that the rulers had given up like that. Charra understood the sentiment. Even after a defeat like that, breaking the alliance off had only disheartened the people and emboldened the Horde. It was a show of weakness to all of Etheria, to allies and enemies alike. In war, you never showed weakness or disunity among the ranks when facing down the enemy. And yet, that's exactly what the Alliance had done.

"This sounds all sad…" Ferah muttered, downcast.

"It is… But, I have faith that eventually there will be enough people with the strength of heart to stand up and inspire Etheria to push back the Horde." Charra stated.

"But you're strong, right?" Ferah said, admiration evident in her voice.

"In body perhaps, but that doesn't mean I have strength of heart." Charra answered, Ferah cocked her head with a frown on her face.

"I don't get it." She muttered. Charra just smiled and ruffled Ferah's fair.

"You will, one day. For now, you've got work to do, remember?" Charra reminded Ferah, who's face scrunched up like she'd eaten something sour.

"Can't I skip it today? Pleeeease?" Ferah begged, but Charra would not be persuaded.

"It's important to know how to read and write. Actually, on that note, I think it's about time that you start on one of the traditional aspects of a practitioner of the Sora no Ken." Charra informed Ferah, who suddenly looked very excited. Did this mean she was going to start learning new techniques? Was it some secret to getting stronger? Instead, she got really confused when Charra opened her bedside drawer and withdrew a book of some kind from within. It looked pretty new, with cover made from wood and light gray cloth, with a blue ribbon sticking out from within the pages.

"It's tradition for each practitioner of the Sora no Ken to keep a journal once they reach a certain level of training. Since you've reached it, it's time for you to keep your own journal." Charra explained as she handed the book to Ferah, who looked a bit deflated. Charra patted her shoulder encouragingly.

"I had the same reaction. Don't worry, it's not that boring." Charra assured Ferah before they got started on todays academic studies. They went well enough. Ferah could solve simple equations with relative ease now, and while her penmanship wasn't terrific, she almost always had the proper spelling and punctuation.

Once a few hours of studies had passed, Charra got started on dinner after the table had been cleared. As she kept an eye on the simmering stew, she glanced over her shoulder and was pleasantly surprised to see Ferah had actually kept an ink pot and quill out to begin writing in her journal. She didn't bother walking over to see what she was writing. That was for Ferah to know. Still, it was encouraging to see that Ferah was actively seeking to write now, instead of simply waiting to be told to by Charra.

Dinner was fairly uneventful that night. There was idle chatter in between mouthfuls of stew and bread before eventually all of the food had been consumed and the pair got started on doing the dishes. After they were finished, Ferah sat down on her bed and looked out the window to see the beautiful sunset. Charra took the time to write in her own journal before she realized how heavy her eyelids felt. This was compounded by the sound of Ferah letting out a huge yawn, signalling to both of them that it was time for bed. After taking care of their evening ablutions, Charra made sure Ferah was tucked in and gave her a kiss on the head before climbing into bed herself. A new day was coming, and Charra could feel a gentle breeze of changing coming their way.

* * *

_Four years later…_

"_Deep breaths, it's going to be fine. Doesn't matter that she's only fourteen, she's more than ready for it. She's better at this now than I was when I was eighteen! She'll be great at it! So why am I so nervous about it?!"_

Charra had been going through this same song and dance all morning, as well as a bunch of the evening. Having run out of other things to drill Ferah on and having reached the peak of how much perfection could be had from a fourteen year old, Charra had decided that it was time to start teaching Ferah the secret arts of the Sora no Ken. However, that didn't make her any less nervous about it. She'd have to be careful about how she went about instructing Ferah in them, since they posed risk to the practitioner just as much as the target, perhaps even more so if not performed correctly. The fractures she suffered in her left arm ten years ago during a botched attempt at a Tempest Strike were a testament to that. And that was one of the basic strikes (relatively speaking, of course).

"I'm ready, ma!"

Charra turned to see Ferah had finished getting ready for the day. There'd been a couple of changes to her wardrobe in the four years, those being a green sash tied around her waist, as well as a character in an old language stitched into her gi. The character was read as 'iron'. She also grown in the last four years, now standing five feet even.

"Alright, let's get outside. We're gonna start the next phase of your training today." Charra informed her pupil, who's eyes went wide with excitement. Charra had a brief moment of panic when the front door let out quite the squeak from the speed at which Ferah threw it open. After stepping outside, Charra walked to the training ground, where Ferah was practically vibrating in place from excitement.

"What am I gonna learn?" Ferah asked eagerly.

"Today, I'm going to begin teaching you how to perform the Tempest Strike." Charra informed the fourteen year old, who somehow looked even more excited than before, though Charra was quick to temper that enthusiasm.

"As excited as you are, we are going to proceed with this training _very carefully_. The Tempest Strike and other techniques like it are dangerous to both the user and the target and I don't want you to get hurt because you were unprepared for the technique. I want to make this very clear; you are _not_ under _any circumstances _to practice any of these techniques without my permission or observation until I say otherwise. Are we clear?" Charra stated, her voice incredibly stern. Recognizing that Charra wasn't fooling around, Ferah nodded sharply. Having received that acknowledgement, Charra began instructing her.

"The Sora no Ken was developed under the belief that there was no limit that couldn't be surpassed, that people could reach the sky and beyond. The true form of the art shows us how to surpass the limits of the body to perform feats that are otherwise impossible. For example…" Charra lectured before walking over to a thick log she had set up on the ground the previous evening before taking up a ready position. Unlike her usual one, this one had her left arm forward and open handed while her right arm was pulled tight to her body, her fist resting just below her ribcage. There was a few moments before Ferah noticed faint hints of almost completely translucent energy around Charra's right fist before she threw a straight right punch, causing the log to crack in two, a spray of splinters erupting from the back of the log where she had just struck! Ferah was gobsmacked. She was stronger than Charra, she knew that much. But even she couldn't break a tree like that in one hit, let alone without heaving bloody knuckles by the end of it. She couldn't even see so much as a bruise, let alone a scrape on Charra's hand!

"What was that?! That was amazing!" Ferah exclaimed as Charra smirked a little bit.

"To use the Tempest Strike, the user channels the body's natural energy into their fist, increasing the limb's striking power and reinforcing it against blunt trauma, such as striking a tree with one's bare fists." Charra explained. Ferah's jaw dropped almost comically before she started hopping from foot to foot with child-like glee.

"Show me show me show me!" Ferah exclaimed excitedly. Charra held up a hand, causing Ferah to pause.

"Before we get to that, you first need to learn how to draw out the energy I mentioned before. Even with your impressive track record so far, it won't be easy. I'd say it'll take a week at least, considering how quickly you've picked everything else up." Charra estimated. Ferah slammed a fist into an open hand with a determined grin on her face.

"Alright, where do we start?" She asked. Charra grinned in a way that had Ferah suddenly uneasy.

"I'm so glad you asked. We meditate. A lot." Charra answered. Ferah fell backwards onto her back with a loud groan.

"Of course, we do." She grumbled. Charra laughed as she sat cross-legged on the ground.

"Well, shall we begin? You want to learn how to perform the Tempest Strike, don't you?" Charra baited, knowing Ferah wouldn't be beaten by a little thing like meditation.

"If it means I get to bring down trees with my bare hands, let's do this." Ferah replied before sitting in a mirror posture to her master.

"Now then, let's begin. Close your eyes and empty your mind… Search deep within yourself for a river of power…" Charra began. It would be a long process, but she knew that Ferah was up to it.

Within the next few years, there would be a new master of the Sora no Ken martial arts. Charra could feel it.

* * *

**And that's where we'll leave it for now! Next chapter, well… You'll see.**

**Creativity: While we're at it, a big thanks to SuperSaiyanFever for helping us find the actual number of Etheria's moons (it's eleven). We've gone back and corrected it. **

**Author: Yeah, thanks on that.**

**But back to the finished chapter, Ferah's begun the big step in her training! She's going to be learning all the really cool stuff about the punchy thing she loves so much! So, for this story, I really suggest you all temper your expectations for Saiyan strength, and don't even bother asking me about power levels. At all. I am not going into that because as far as I'm concerned, even bringing in power levels in any capacity has negatively impacted discussion regarding my other DBZ crossover story, Limit Breaker.**

**Creativity: You wanna get back to the story, boss?**

**Author: Yeah, sorry about that.**

**So, just for reference, I based the stances that Ferah and Charra use when sparring off of Akuma and Oni from Street Fighter 4, mainly because I just like the stances. **

**Anything else…? Nothing springs to mind right now. I guess we're done! So, on that note, thank you for reading, please review and we'll see you next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

***SNIFF***

**Oh, how I love that new chapter smell.**

**Creativity: Oh, so that's what that smell is! I thought someone was baking… Wait, no… What is that?**

**Author: It doesn't exactly have a defined smell. It sorta just shifts. The only constant is that it remains pleasant.**

**Creativity: Wait, I thought…**

**Author: If this could possibly be spoilery, keep your trap shut. **

**So, here we are for a chapter four, and having had time to ruminate on the story ahead, plus watch season 4 (Damn you Algorithm), so I got ideas. But for now, we continue our road towards episode 1, which I swear, I didn't think would take this long. Still think it worked out for the best though. More time to establish Ferah and Charra, watch the former grow up a bit over a few chapters, establish some of Charra's backstory, so on and so forth. **

**However, you already read that! Now is the time to read the news stuff! And on that note… *ahem*…**

**We now proudly present chapter 4 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

Charra grunted as she hefted an axe above her head and swung it at the base of a tree. She'd been working to bring it down for about ten minutes while Ferah was at the river, working to acquire dinner for the next few nights.

Once she was satisfied with the amount she'd cut down, she took a deep breath and took up a ready position. Transparent energy began to gather around her leg before she delivered a straight kick to the spot that she'd cut out, causing the tree to _crack_ loudly before it began to topple over. She probably needn't have bothered with the axe at all, but using the old-fashioned method was better exercise. With the tree brought down, Charra set about using the axe to cut off the branches, trimming them down and wrapping them up into a bundle to be brought back to the cabin. Once she was done with that, she heard a few twigs snapping and turned to see Ferah approaching, a net filled with fish slung over her shoulder.

"You wanna take this and the twigs? I can take the tree." Ferah offered.

"Sure. Besides, I don't want you getting ideas and trying to eat all our dinner on the way home." Charra replied with a good-natured jab at the end.

"That was one time, ma…" Ferah grumbled as she handed Charra the fish and walked over to the fallen tree before she grabbed it around the middle and heaved it into the air with a grunt, resting it on her shoulder as they began walking back home.

Ferah was sixteen now and had undergone a couple more growth spurts in the last two years. She now stood five feet, five inches and now tied a large chunk of her hair back, though that didn't do much to tame the hair further towards the front of her head. Additionally, she'd swapped out her typical undershirt for one cut to show her midriff, her typical pants had been replaced with nearly identical ones, save for the fact that the went down to just past her knees. Finally, she'd taken to wrapping her arms, lower legs and even part of her feet in cloth strips, similar to the ones Charra wore on her arms. As the two walked back to the log cabin, Charra looked up at the sky, tracking the sun.

"There's still time. Do you want to make that run down to the village?" Ferah asked as the emerged from the forest to the cabin, whereupon Ferah set the log down and brought her right hand up, energy gathering around her open hand before she swung it down in the blink of an eye, cutting through the log in one strike!

"No, we can do that tomorrow. We'll be busy cleaning these fish for a few hours anyway." Charra replied as she watched Ferah continue to divide the log into pieces with her bare hands. Her adoptive daughter never ceased to amaze her, even after sixteen years. She remembered the first time Ferah had successfully performed the Tempest Strike. They'd been practicing for a couple of weeks when finally, Ferah had done it. And she did it so well, that the log had burst apart into woodchips instead of the even split that Charra had done during her demonstration of the technique. From there, Ferah had gone on to rapidly master more and more techniques of the Sora no Ken, including the Thunderstrike kick used by the subject of one of Ferah's favorite stories as a child.

Charra had felt a bit put out by Ferah's mastery of that one, since she hadn't mastered that technique yet herself. Still, that was vastly overshadowed by the pride she felt in the young warrior. Though, it had become difficult to spar recently, and it wasn't exactly a secret why. Ferah's strength was just too much for Charra to keep up with now, even when Ferah held back during their spars. That didn't mean that Charra couldn't win still. Ferah's technique was impeccable, but she didn't have the experience that Charra had. However, since Ferah was constantly worrying over the possibility of hurting, or worse, killing Charra if she wasn't careful during a spar, and that meant she was more focused on restraining herself rather than engaging in the spar.

However, the time that used to be spent sparring had given way to something else; something else that Charra was more cautious of, but didn't see fit to stop quite yet. Ferah had taken to experimenting with the techniques, making adjustments to them or reapplying principles from them into different areas. One such instance of this was when she developed a brand new technique by simply taking the principles of the enhanced strikes and applying them to the whole body simultaneously. She hadn't yet thought of a proper name for it, simply referring to it as 'powering up', but it hadn't taken very long for Charra to catch on and learn to use the technique herself. While the strikes she could deliver while using the technique weren't as strong as the ones where the energy was concentrated in a single limb, it was easier to maintain the state after a strike. And besides, the strikes one could deliver were still well beyond what she was normally capable of. In fact, it was a wonder that this technique hadn't been thought up before.

Perhaps the masters had thought such a technique would use too much energy, and while Charra did tire out quicker while using the technique, it was hardly lethal if you didn't use more energy than your body had.

As Ferah continued to divide the fallen tree into smaller pieces for firewood, Charra remembered the fish that needed to be cleaned and deposited the branches on the ground and dragged out a wooden folding table from under the cabin before placing the net of fish on said table before heading inside to grab the set of knives she used for gutting fish. Emerging from the cabin with a pair of buckets and the knives in question, she set to work; grabbing a fish and slicing it open before removing all the unwanted guts and bones, tossing them into the buckets before setting the fillets aside. Afterwards, it was onto the next fish, then the next, and soon enough, Charra had worked her way through a dozen fish. By now, Ferah had finished chopping the wood and had piled it all in storage behind the cabin and had also washed her hands of any bark or splinters that may have been stuck to her, so she walked over to where Charra was working and realized that all the ingredients they needed for preserving the fish were still inside. After hurrying into the cabin to retrieve them, she came back with the needed materials and set to work on preparing the fish. The work went for a few hours and by the end of it, both of them knew that another trip to the river was needed to get rid of all the blood and guts that clung to their hands. However, before they left, they made sure to get the fish into the cabin and to dispose of the offal. They didn't want any animals poking around their cabin while they were gone, even if either of them could take care of them in a single strike.

After they'd finished washing the fish guts from their arms, they returned to the cabin and went inside. It was about three thirty by Charra's estimate, so she decided to open the chest and withdrew the large book again and began leafing through it before finding a page covering some of the eccentricities of one of the techniques she was working to master. It was one of the few she'd never seen her master perform. In fact, she'd only heard him mention it once during an argument with one of the other…

Charra immediately abandoned that page and found another one, which she became very invested in. Ferah seemed to notice this sudden switch but decided not to mention it. Instead, she continued reading her own book, which was the journal of master Akar. She'd read the journal back to front a few times now, but she kept coming back to it. Every time she read it, she always found something new in it, a new way to apply a technique, some wisdom or lesson that she'd missed before, and it kept drawing her back.

Eventually, the time was signalled by the rumbling of Ferah's stomach, a sound that echoed about the cabin, prompting red to bloom across Ferah's cheeks while Charra tried to stifle her giggles as the two of them got up to start working on dinner. Tonight's selection being fried fish with toast and assorted fried roots.

"Ma, can I ask you a question?" Ferah suddenly piped up.

"I'm pretty sure you just did but go ahead." Charra replied, grinning a bit at the groan that extracted from Ferah.

"How come you never talk about your master aside from small moments? Or where you trained before?" Charra asked hesitantly. Charra paused for a moment, then continued working normally.

"Why the sudden curiosity?" Charra asked as she tended to the fish. Ferah shrugged as she stirred the roots.

"I guess it's because I've been thinking a lot recently about where I came from, then I remembered that you never talk about your life outside of maybe a year or so before you found me in the woods." Ferah replied before she went to take the toast out of the pan. Charra sighed as she removed the fish from the heat and put it on a plate, waiting for Ferah to finish moving the roots and toast to the table.

"Do you remember ten years ago, when you asked me about the Rebellion and the Horde?" Charra asked. Ferah nodded.

"I don't remember a lot of the conversation, but I remember having it. Why?" Ferah responded as she sat down at the table.

"Well, I mentioned during it that I had tried to fight the Horde on my own, and that I made a lot of very poor decisions. Even if I rationalize it as me dealing with grief, it doesn't change the fact that many of my decisions were insults to my master's memory. He'd taught me that the Sora no Ken was to be used to reach greater heights, to improve myself physically, spiritually and to simply be a better person through it. I used what he taught me to lash out at any Horde soldier within reach, even if they hadn't been the ones who took my master from me, and after a brutal reality check and many years of training and seclusion, I realized that I had become the antithesis of everything my master had taught me." Charra told Ferah.

"You were ashamed… I remember you saying that now." Ferah recalled from their conversation so long ago.

"Yes. I was ashamed. I still am to this day." Charra murmured. Dinner was feeling significantly more awkward now. There was virtually no talking between them until dinner was finished, and even then, the silence was palpable. As the two of them wrote in their journals, Charra couldn't stop thinking about their conversation earlier. The memories kept coming back. The screaming, the sound of Horde weapons being fired, the smell of smoke and the heat being cast off by the fires, it all kept coming back to her, despite her best efforts to stave off the memories.

Noticing that she was holding quill tight enough that it was threatening to snap at any moment, Charra forced herself to relax and employed a small selection of the exercises her master had taught her to calm herself before she looked down at her journal again. Looking at it, she realized there was one entry she needed to make.

Turning the page, she began writing a brand new entry. She wrote for hours until she finally noticed that the sun had already dipped below the horizon. Ferah had long ceased writing and was in the midst of washing up for bed. Closing her journal, Charra went to join her. There was yet more silence until finally Charra had enough. She needed to say something, _anything_ to put an end to it.

"Ferah, I need you to promise me something." Charra suddenly said.

"Yes, ma?" Ferah asked, looking up from her bed.

"Promise me that you won't fall into the same trap I did. Don't let anger and grief consume you and turn you into something you aren't. I just don't want you to hurt yourself the way I did so long ago." Charra asked. Ferah was quiet for a moment before she finally answered.

"I promise, ma." Ferah said quietly before Charra walked over and pulled Ferah into a tight hug. Ferah was surprised for a moment before she reciprocated the hug. After a while, Charra pulled away and went over to the lantern and candles, extinguishing them all before climbing into bed.

"Love you, ma." Ferah murmured quietly before she drifted off.

"I love you to, Ferah." Charra replied in kind before she drifted off to sleep herself.

* * *

_The next day…_

"Remind me why we needed to go into town again?"

"We're picking up bread, eggs and a few spices."

"Ooh, can we stop by Lara's too?"

"You and your sweet tooth…"

It had been some time since Charra and Ferah had set out from the cabin and began their trek out of the mountains to the village. In fact, they were just emerging from the treeline and were on the last leg of the journey.

"Come on, can we? Please?" Ferah begged.

"Well, I suppose we could, if…" Charra started before stopping. Ferah looked at her confusedly.

"Well? If what?" Ferah asked.

"If you can beat me there!" Charra suddenly announced before taking off at a sprint towards the village!

"Hey, no fair!" Ferah shouted after Charra before taking off like a rocket! Despite her head start and massive lead, Ferah was closing the gap more and more by the second. They were about three quarters of the way there and Ferah had just reached neck and neck with Charra, and just like that, she surged ahead to take the lead, skidding to a stop as she crossed the threshold of the village with a loud whoop of victory. Charra was laughing as Ferah looked back at her smugly.

"Beat you even though you cheated. Again." Ferah stated with that same smug look.

"I don't think you can still be smug if you fell for it yet again." Charra pointed out, causing her to glance to the side as her cheeks turned a bit red.

"Don't need to remind me…" She muttered grumpily as Ferah pulled her into a one-armed hug.

"Come on, we'll take care of the necessities, then I believe you just won a trip to Lara's if I'm not mistaken." Charra reminded her. Ferah immediately brightened up.

"Damn right I did." She bragged, though it was all in good fun. However, as they walked through town, they couldn't help but notice a lot more subtle glances their way, and they didn't look happy. They all were a mixture of caution, concern, fear or possibly anger. They were used to glances since they didn't come into town very often, but they weren't typically this unwelcoming. The attitude persisted through their trip to the bakers and the general store, with warnings from Daros the baker to mind themselves and a few people at the general store telling them to be careful. It was getting rather concerning. What did the villagers know that they weren't telling them?

"Ma, do you know why they're acting so weird?" Ferah whispered to Charra, who shook her head.

"I'm not sure but keep on guard." Charra replied in an equally hushed tone as they stepped into Lara's sweet shop. The moment Lara saw them, her usual smile dipped to a frown.

"Is everything alright?" Charra asked. Lara's frown deepened.

"You two don't know? Wait, has nobody told you?" Lara asked. Charra shook her head.

"No. All we've gotten are strange looks and warnings to be careful." Ferah replied. Lara's frown became an incensed scowl.

"Cowards. One stranger comes to town and everyone's suddenly on lockdown." Lara muttered angrily. Charra was surprised. She'd never seen Lara get angry like this. She'd seen her be disciplinary with rowdy customers or children who tried to swipe sweets from her shop, but never truly angry like this.

"What's going on?" Charra asked. Lara glanced out the window before motioning they come closer.

"A stranger came to town a couple of days ago. They were dressed in black and wore a thick scarf around their neck and lower face. They were asking around about a woman that matched your description. Nobody gave him anything, but he didn't seem convinced. It was mostly hidden by his scarf, but he has the Horde sigil tattooed in red over his left shoulder. Apparently, there have been rumors of a Horde commander matching his description. Nasty stories… It's all rumors, but if half of them are true, then he's not someone you want the attention of. I caught wind of a story about him in the pub last night. If it is the same guy, he's referred to as 'the bloody fist of the Horde'." Lara explained. Charra went stock still. Ferah noticed this and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ma, is everything alright?" Ferah asked quietly.

"Thank you for telling us this, Lara. We'll be on our way." Charra immediately said in a low tone. She immediately spun and marched out of the shop. Ferah was confused but hurried after her mother all the same.

"Ma, what's going on?" Ferah asked her quietly.

"Listen to me. Don't make eye contact with anyone. We're heading straight back to the house." Charra instructed in a strict tone. Ferah recoiled a little bit. Charra had never used that tone with her before. What was going on?

Once they were into the treeline, Charra's walking speed picked up dramatically, almost to a jog. While it was no issue for Ferah to keep up, she was still disconcerted about this sudden change in her mother's attitude, causing her to lag behind a bit. Once they got back to the house, Charra tossed their newly acquired groceries to the side carelessly outside the cabin.

"Ma, seriously! What's going on?!" Ferah asked desperately.

"Ferah, start packing. Only your essentials." Charra instructed. Instead, Ferah grabbed Charra's shoulder and spun her around before holding her in place with both hands

"Okay, no! I'm not doing anything until you tell me what's going on!" Ferah exclaimed. Charra was surprised but could see the confusion and distress on Ferah's face and realized that she'd been on autopilot for a little while now.

"This place isn't safe anymore. Not for the village, and definitely not for us. We need to leave now, while we still can." Charra explained before she began throwing together a rucksack for travel.

"If the Horde is going to attack, we can handle it! We can fight! I can fight!" Ferah argued, only for Charra to whirl around with a face that made Ferah suddenly feel like she was three years old again. That was the face she only saw on very rare occasions, when she'd really screwed up and knew that her mother had a lecture ready.

"And say you do fight? Say the two of us could defeat an entire Horde invasion force by ourselves? What then? We wouldn't get the Horde to leave us alone! All we would get is _attention_ from the Horde, which is exactly what we and the town are _desperately _trying to avoid!" Charra lectured in a raised voice before she calmed down.

"I get the desire to stand up against the Horde. Believe me, I really do. But you need to learn not just how to fight, but whether to fight. It's a lesson I took too long to learn and nearly cost me my life." Charra continued in a much lower, more tired voice.

"We can't just leave the village to the Horde…" Ferah tried arguing, but Charra shook her head.

"The people of that village are more than familiar with the Horde. I imagine more than a few of them are preparing to leave in anticipation of a Horde force arriving." Charra replied as she began loading up her rucksack with clothes and provisions. Ferah reluctantly began to do the same, filling up her own rucksack with clothes and provisions, as well as a few basic medical supplies before they stepped outside. Charra locked the front door and they set out. It was already about three, maybe four o'clock when they started walking since the trip to town took about four hours there and back, not accounting for any of the time spent in town, and that was if you were walking at a pretty brisk pace. However, having already done a lap today, they were naturally going slower. However, Charra was on high alert the whole time. It wasn't until the sky had turned a deep orange and Charra heard rustling behind her and saw Ferah digging through her rucksack for something. It was when Charra saw a familiar strip of black cloth emerge from the rucksack that she had to bite her tongue to avoid a string of words she'd worked diligently to keep Ferah from ever learning.

"That's tonight?! How did I forget?" Charra ranted angrily to herself. Looking up in the sky, she guessed that they had a little while longer to go before the moons had risen. However, she wanted Ferah out of the moonlight as soon as possible.

As they kept walking, Charra led Ferah off the path and through the forest. She hadn't put on the blindfold quite yet, but she kept it on hand. Though it probably wouldn't have mattered all that much. Ferah had developed an incredible sense for her surroundings and even if she was in somewhere unfamiliar, she could navigate it pretty well while blindfolded. Still, Charra didn't want to have Ferah wandering around the woods blindfolded unless it was strictly necessary, which it wasn't quite yet. Eventually they reached the edge of the forest, though not all the way out. The moons were just starting to peak over the horizon and weren't in alignment yet, so Charra decided to put down camp here. After picking a spot, Ferah slipped on the blindfold as Charra got busy cooking a quick meal out of dried meat. They ate in silence before unfurling their bedrolls and climbing in, with Charra adding some specialized camouflage with a dark green cloth that was pitched similarly to a tent, but mainly served to hide them and did little for shelter. However, it also served the purpose of keeping the moonlight away from Ferah, even if the blindfold slipped off in the middle of the night.

However, sleep would prove elusive. The sound of screaming, explosions and zapping noises proved more than enough to rouse them from their slumber. This time, Charra did employ one of her choice curse words as she looked over at the village in the distance to see that it was indeed on fire. Ferah didn't need to see to guess what was going on. She lifted up the blindfold to see what was happening and felt her stomach start churning.

"They're just attacking them… No one's fighting back… Why? What do they get out of this?!" Ferah asked desperately as Charra just glared.

"It's a display, meant to show their ruthlessness and efficiency; to dishearten what areas of Etheria they don't control." Charra muttered as the slaughter continued.

"We can't let this continue…" Ferah murmured as she went to stand, but Charra just grabbed her shoulder.

"We can't help them now. We need to keep..." She started answering before she saw something on the outskirts. Only visible by the firelight was a man dressed in naught but baggy black pants and sandals, held up with blood-red rope. He wore no shirt instead having a long, thick scarf wrapped around his neck that hung down over his chest and shoulders. He was performing martial arts techniques that were very familiar to both Charra and Ferah. Seeing him gave Charra an epiphany. However indirectly, the Horde had found this place because of her. That man had come here in search of her and would continue searching for her if they didn't find her. And if they learned of Ferah…

"No…"

Ferah looked up at her mother.

"Ma?" She asked.

"It ends tonight. One way or another…" Charra stated in a low tone as she slowly rose to her feet. Ferah also rose to her own and began cracking her knuckles.

"Alright, let's go…" Ferah started before she suddenly fell limp, collapsing to the ground unconscious. Charra closed her eyes in shame as she slowly lowered her hand from the neck strike she'd used to knock Ferah unconscious before concealing her beneath the camouflage.

"I'm sorry. I hope you'll understand one day." Charra murmured before she turned and began to march slowly down towards the slaughter ground. The march slowly picked up pace until she was at a full-on sprint. Once she was in range, Charra leapt explosively into the air as she reared back her fist, a familiar energy wrapped around her fist. As she descended from the air, she swung her fist down at one of the Horde's attack drones, reducing it to scrap in an instant! The sound of the drone being smashed to pieces was more than enough to attract the attention of the Horde commander, who turned to look at Charra, who rose from where she'd destroyed the drone and glared at him.

"You came here looking for me, Veran? Well, here I am."

The man, identified as Veran, began to slowly clap as he approached. His hands were stained red already, as were his feet. She could see speckles of red all over him, now that she could see him up close. All of it fresh.

"You always were good at the dramatic entrances, weren't you, Char? It got a bit boring after that time on the way to Dryl and you suddenly challenge my entire force singlehandedly! Oh, those were the days…" Veran drawled, sounding as if he genuinely was nostalgic for then. Charra was especially displeased with his mocking use of her old nickname. Out of his mouth, it sounded foul.

"I'm putting an end to this. All of this, one way or another." Charra stated as she turned so that her left shoulder was facing him.

"Oh, this will only end one way. No one is to interfere. This one is my kill." Veran announced. His soldiers seemed confused, but they obeyed.

"Try to keep it interesting for me this time?" Veran mocked as he sank into his own stance. His had his arms loosely held in the air, thighs parallel to the ground while his crus were perpendicular to it. Charra watched as a dark crimson energy sparked along the length of his arms before he suddenly rushed forward and launched into a vicious series of hooks and swings! Charra dodged and blocked all of them before seeing an opportunity and delivering a double palm-heel strike to Veran's chest and knocking him back! Seeing the opportunity to press forward, she rushed in with a straight kick before going for a leaping punch, though the latter was blocked, and she received a hook to the sternum in retaliation.

"You've been practicing!" Veran commented as he spun and performed a hammer kick that Charra managed to roll out of the way of before she performed a roundhouse kick that Veran blocked before shoving her back. Charra performed a backwards spring to recover, but Veran was already on top of her, preparing for a Tempest Strike! Channeling energy into her arms to brace, she crossed her arms in front of her to block. However, while she avoided having broken ribs or arms, she was still thrown back through the air and landed hard on her back. As she started to push herself up, she heard Veran's shout from above her. Looking up, her eyes widened as she saw him descending towards her with his fist crackling with energy! Rolling out of the way of the strike, Charra knew that she needed to change things up if she was to win this. With a shout, she drew upon all the energy she had, causing a silvery aura to erupt from her body! She'd never pushed Ferah's power up technique this far before, but she didn't care about the consequences. Not now.

She rushed forward and struck Veran with an uppercut before leaping into the air and flipping into a flying axe kick, sending Veran smashing into the ground. As she landed, she rushed forward and delivered twin spin kicks before finished with a Tempest Strike! However, just before the blow could connect, Veran's bloodsoaked hand shot up and caught Charra's fist. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw Veran's head slowly turn to look at hers. His orange eyes brimming with a strange mixture of contempt, amusement and frustration.

"You really have been practicing, haven't you?" He muttered as he straightened out and began to _twist _her hand to the side in a painful manner. Charra watched a similar aura to her own began to emit from Veran's body, only dark red in color.

"However, you are as foolish as ever if you assumed no one else had discovered that little trick." He said before he suddenly yanked her into the air before slamming her back into the ground. He then threw her into the air and launched upwards, delivering an uppercut straight to her stomach before spinning and driving his other elbow into her shoulder, sending her flying into the ground. When he landed, Veran grabbed Charra by the front of her clothes and slowly hauled her to her feet before grabbing her by the hair to hold her in place. He then proceeded to deliver a series of brutal punches to her face, stomach, shoulders before he made sure she was going to stay standing up before he reared back and lashed out with both fists at once, energy roaring around his limbs! Charra was sent cartwheeling through the air before limply rolling across the ground and coming to a stop. Veran leisurely walked over to her and looked down. She was still alive, but he could tell she wouldn't be for very long. The numerous internal injuries would see to that. He bent down to look her in the eye.

"You lived as a fool, and you'll die as one too. And for what? You couldn't stop me when I put that old fool down and burned the dojo to the ground, you couldn't stop me on the way to Dryl, and you couldn't stop me this time either. What would have made it worth it to save people who couldn't save themselves?" Veran asked her, but she refused to answer. Or perhaps she couldn't. Veran didn't care. He turned and walked away, the soldiers and drones following him into the firelit night. However, he stumbled a bit on the way before coughing up a large globule of blood before he righted himself and kept marching onward. Having seen this out of the corner of her eye, Charra's lips slowly curled into a painful smile. It was very much possible that he could die on the way back to the Fright Zone like that.

* * *

Ferah groaned as she slowly came to. Her neck felt sore. Her eyes were still covered by the blindfold. As she tried to get up, she realized that she was underneath something. Right, they'd brought along that camouflage sheet. They'd been lying under it when…

"MA!" Ferah suddenly exclaimed before ripping through the sheet and climbing to her feet. After peaking out from underneath the blindfold, she began hurrying towards the town as fast as she could. However, when she saw a body up ahead, she picked up the pace until she was close enough to recognize it. She just about tripped as she was overcome with horror and panic at the sight.

"Ma… ma! No, nononononono, MA!" Ferah yelled as she practically collapsed next to her mother and grabbed her hand, tearing the blindfold off her head.

"F…Ferah…?" Charra murmured weakly as her eyes slowly turned to look at Ferah.

"I'm here, ma. I'm going to help you…" Ferah blubbered tearfully as she started desperately trying to figure out what to do.

"No… _cough cough…_ No, it's… It's too late for that…" Charra moaned as coughed up a globule of blood.

"No, don't say that… You're too strong. You can make it!" Ferah insisted desperately as she held her mother's hand tight.

"It's okay… It's okay, Ferah… I'm okay… As long as you're safe…" Charra said with a weak smile as she strained to lift her hand up to Ferah's cheek, gently brushing away one of the tears with her thumb.

"I'm so sorry… there's so much I wanted to tell you… But… You're going to be… _cough cough…_ you're going to be okay, Ferah… You're strong… so, so strong, Ferah…" Charra kept going as Ferah desperately tried to think of a way to save her mother.

"No, no no no, ma! You can't die! Please, please don't leave me!" Ferah begged as she desperately held her mother's hand to her heart.

"It's okay… As long as you're safe… As long… as…"

Charra's voice gave out as she fell limp, her eyes closed slowly. Her hand felt from Ferah's face to her own stomach. Ferah's tearful sobs of anguish filled the air as she buried her face in her mother's stomach, crying.

"No… no… please come back.. please… please, ma!" She sobbed into her mother's bloodsoaked clothes before she threw back her head and let out a wail of pure misery and suffering. She turned to see several Horde soldiers and attack bots slowly approaching. Her sobs turned into heaving breaths as her anguish changed to anger. They'd killed her mother… They'd taken her away…!

Ferah could feel something welling up in her, pulsing through her body in time with her heartbeat. Her gaze had become one of pure, unadulterated fury, the soldiers flinching every time they were the subject of her glare. However, there was something drawing her gaze upward. Some strange force that she couldn't explain. Her eyes glazed over as she stared at the three moons hanging in perfect alignment.

_Ba-bump… Ba-bump…_

As soon as it started, there was no stopping it. Ferah began to change as her eyes drank in the moons' pale light. She grew taller as brown fur began to emerge. Her face elongated and her teeth became fangs. Before long, a towering ape stood over the terrified Horde troops. The ape let out a roar and began to rampage through their ranks, crushing and trampling over them. No weapon could fell the beast as it let loose a guttural bellow before a beam of energy erupted from its maw, carving a massive gash across the land and destroying many a Horde war machine. Only one vehicle managed to escape the carnage, with its four passengers looking back at the spectacle behind them; a village in flames, with the fire and smoke framing a colossal monster as it roared and beat its chest in fury. It was an image they would not soon forget.

* * *

Ferah jerked as she awoke. She was cold. Really cold. She also felt… Wait, where were her clothes?!

Realizing that she'd been sleeping in the buff, Ferah suddenly started jolted upright and started looking around frantically before she realized that she was alone. It was the chilly mountain air that was responsible for her shivering. However, as she got to her feet, she realized she was lying in the middle of a crater. She carefully climbed out of the crater and looked down at it before realizing that it wasn't a crater. It was a footprint. A really, really big footprint. The strange thing was that the footprints ended where she'd woken up, but there was a short trail of them leading back towards…

"No… No no no…" Ferah whispered in horror as she began running back along the trail of giant footprints towards the village. When she arrived, it was as she'd feared.

The place was an abandoned warzone. There were tiny, smoldering fires that were still causing small wisps of smoke to rise into the air. The town was burned to the ground, with bodies littering the streets around it. There were ruined Horde battle bots and other such war machines scattered about the battleground. But worst of all were the footprints. The last thing that Ferah remembered seeing before she blacked out was… the three moons. And when she woke up, she was lying at the end of a trail of monstrous footprints and the Horde looked to have been absolutely demolished after she blacked out.

"Oh First Ones… What did I do…" Ferah murmured in horror. There was no telling how many of the townspeople had perished alongside the Horde soldiers when whatever the moons did to her took hold. Now she understood why her mother had been so adamant about keeping her away from the moons.

"Oh no… ma…" Ferah realized when she remembered Charra. She started searching frantically until she found the very thing she feared most; Charra's dead body. All the pain, all the grief, it all came rushing back. Ferah wept. She wept for the first time since she was four years old. She sat in the dirt, hugging Charra's body close to her as she cried. Eventually though, she needed to move on. The Horde would be back here, one way or another, and Ferah needed to get away from here. She'd suffered too much and done too much damage herself. However, there was one thing to do first.

After finding a relatively functional spade, Ferah started digging. She dug and dug until she'd dug a large enough hole and carefully laid her mother inside before arranging her arms over her chest. From there, she refilled the hole and found a large, flat rock and another, sharp stone. She carefully scratched Charra's name into the stone, as well as an old sigil for Fire underneath it before planting it in the ground. With one last tearful goodbye, Ferah retrieved her rucksack, which had miraculously gone undamaged in yesterday's calamity, as well as the old ring of keys that her mother had in her own rucksack and set out. She had no idea where she was going, only that she needed to get away from here.

* * *

**Well, this was certainly MUCH heftier than we initially thought, but it's actually turned out real nice!**

**Creativity: **_**…sniff…**_** Why would you be so cruel…?**

**Author: I am a right piece of work, aren't I?**

**Well, I don't think I have much else to say on the Charra thing. People will make of it what they make of it.**

**Besides, I'm actually feeling really tired…**

**Creativity: Well, considering how this ran extra long, I'm not surprised.**

**Author: Yeah, don't expect chapters this long in future. Doesn't mean they won't happen, just don't expect them.**

**And with that, I think we'll end this here! Thank you for reading, please review and we'll see you next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Edits in post: Added body language to Ferah scenes (see, tail)**

* * *

**Greetings all, and welcome to chapter five of Fist of the Sky! **

**Creativity: … Is it safe to come out?**

**Author: Yes, we're fine. We don't have to deal with riots here.**

**Creativity: Alright then… So, what were we doing today?**

**Author: Well, likely attracting those 'update now' reviews from readers of Limit Breaker.**

**Creativity: Okay… What are we **_**really **_**doing?**

**Author: Well, we finally get to join the plot!**

**Creativity: FINALLY!**

**Author: Indeed!**

**Much like Creativity said, we're finally going to get into the plot of the show, which means I need to go reappraise myself of the first season. Gimme a minute…**

_**One binge session later…**_

**Yeah, I think I'm ready to go. So, first off, this story is still finding its legs a bit, so I don't know if we'll be doing all too many perspective shifts. We'll probably be holding to Ferah's the most (obviously) but aside from that, no idea.**

**Second of all, there is going to be a lull in uploads eventually. There just is. I've got too much going on for there not to be. That is to be kept in mind when people eventually start coming to me with "upload please" or "upload now" or just "upload" reviews, and it should also be kept in mind that those reviews will not make me write any faster or devote more time to this story.**

**Alright, enough with that guff. Here's chapter 5 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

The leaves and branches crunched beneath Ferah's feet as she strode through the Whispering Woods. She didn't know how long she'd been wandering around in them, but it had been for most of the day. She could tell that much.

She wasn't sure what had drawn her to the woods. Perhaps it was the lingering memory of the story of Grand Master Akar that her mother had told her when she was little, maybe it was the admiration she'd held for the long-dead master of her fighting style, or maybe she was just lost. If you had asked her a few hours ago, she'd have likely said it was one of the former, but now she would say the latter.

"I am definitely lost…" Ferah muttered as she adjusted her rucksack on her back. It had been through the ringer in the last year and a half that she'd been on her own. Then again, so had she. She hadn't grown that much since she left home, maybe a half inch at most. Her hair had become a bit more unruly, though it hadn't grown any longer. It never seemed to do that. Her clothes probably sold how long she'd been out in the wilds for. Despite her best efforts, they were torn, scuffed, stained and faded. However, she had taken to wearing her black blindfold around her hair tie so that it would always be available if she was caught off guard during the night of three moons.

The wilds of Etheria had been the only thing approaching a home that Ferah had known for the last year and half. She'd not even stopped at any towns in that time, practically cut off from civilization entirely. She'd occasionally met travelers on the road, but she didn't talk to them, nor they to her. They were suspicious of everyone, she'd found. And more than that, they were tired. It wasn't hard to guess why.

She'd had no encounters with the Horde since… that night… She'd avoided signs of them like the plague and never stayed in one place. However, she wasn't sure how much longer she could avoid going into a town or city. Hunting could only support her for so long, and besides, she was lost. She'd gotten by on her mother's lessons in navigating via the moons of Etheria, but she was hesitant to look at them, now that she knew what she was capable of when the right moons were in the sky at the right time. Perhaps it would have been better to put 'wrong' in place of 'right'.

Ferah shook her head. She hated thinking about that. It always brought her back to that night, and that was the last thing she wanted to think of. The pointlessness of it all and the carnage she'd unwittingly been a part of, she wanted to never think of it again.

"I need a break." Ferah suddenly decided before seating herself down and opening her rucksack to retrieve her canteen before shaking it. It was about half full and she hadn't had anything to drink for quite a while, so she took a swig, only to remember once she'd swallowed that for her, a swig meant draining the whole canteen.

"Great… Wonder what sort of lecture ma would be giving me right about now." Ferah muttered before she felt a familiar pang of hurt rush through her. Even a year and a half later, and she still couldn't get it out her head. Why?! All it did was hurt!

"Gah!" Ferah shouted angrily before slamming her fist against a nearby tree, accidentally causing it to snap and start keeling over. Ferah winced and shied away as the tree crashed to the ground, causing several forest critters to go running off into the woods.

"Ma would tan my hide for that one…" She mumbled before she smacked herself in the forehead. That was exactly the line of thought that caused her to break the stupid tree!

"Okay, I need to find more water. No problem. It's a forest and it's got plenty of green. There's gotta be a good source of water around her somewhere." Ferah reminded herself before she set off into the woods again, searching for a river, pond, stream, anything that she could use to refill her canteen.

"Guess this is what I get for not trying to get my hands on a map anywhere." Ferah muttered to herself as she hopped over a log and kept her ears pricked for any sound that could indicate water. She remembered that you'd often hear the mountain stream back home before you saw it.

"This would be easier if I could find an animal trail of some kind to follow. Or an animal heading for water if Etheria was feeling generous today." Ferah said to no one in particular. She'd been doing that for quite some time now, especially the last few weeks.

"I wonder if I should be worried about that." Ferah once again said aloud before she went to vault over a weird colored boulder in her way, only for said boulder to squeal in surprise, causing Ferah to yelp and tumble over onto her monkey-tailed backside.

"Oww…" Ferah muttered as she rubbed her sore rear before she turned to look at the screaming rock, only to discover that it wasn't a rock at all, but an old woman who's long gray hair had made it seem like she was a rock. When seen from the back and unmoving, Ferah hadn't been able to make the distinction, though it seemed obvious now.

"I think I've been on the road too long…" Ferah groaned as she got to her feet.

"I'm sorry about that, ma'am. I didn't mean to hurt you." Ferah apologized to the old woman, who shook her head surprisingly vigorously for a moment before she peered at Ferah. What stuck out to Ferah was that the woman had purple skin and was carrying a broom and basket of some kind.

"Hmm… Mara? No, you're not Mara. Sorry about that, dearie. Razz was confused for a second." The old woman said before she hurried off at surprising speed for a woman her age.

"Hey, hold up!" Ferah called after the woman as she scrambled to her feet and hurried after her.

"Hmm…? What can Madame Razz do for you?" The woman, now known as Madame Razz, asked.

"I was wondering if there's a stream nearby. I need to refill my canteen." Ferah explained. Razz seemed to fuzz out for a few moments before she suddenly was present again.

"Oh, you can come with me and Mara to pick berries! I'm not sure if I have a spare basket, but that's alright! You and Mara can share!" Razz exclaimed before she hurried off deeper into the woods.

"Hey, wait! I just wanted to find some water!" Ferah exclaimed, flustered as she hurried after Razz. She was surprisingly agile for an old woman, but Ferah had no trouble keeping pace until they reached an old hut made of stone brick and covered in vines.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have time to go berry picking right now. I just need to find some water to refill my canteen." Ferah tried to explain, but it seemed Razz would have none of it.

"Oh, I'm sure you don't have anywhere else to be. You've been on your own for a long time, yes? So has Razz! So, let's go pick some berries! Just as soon as Mara arrives. She always gets here on time." Razz insisted. Ferah stood there, a dusting of red on her cheeks. She didn't know how to get out of this. Razz wasn't taking no for an answer, and she didn't want to be rude.

"It must be lonely after so long, yes? Coming from the stars and yet they've been gone for so long." Razz mentioned offhandedly as she began to tear apart her house looking for something.

"Wait, what? What are you talking about? I've always lived on Etheria." Ferah replied.

"But I saw you! You fell from the stars! And you are so strong, too! Almost as strong as my Mara, maybe?" Razz continued. Ferah spluttered incoherently.

"What are… How do you… What are you talking about?!" Ferah demanded. Razz just moved to another corner and started tossing things around before she turned to look at Ferah, peering closely at her.

"Wait… Caulla? Is that you? You changed your hair! And your eyes!" Razz exclaimed. Ferah had been about ready to give up at that point, had she suddenly felt a massive pain in her head.

"Ah!" She cried out as she dropped to one knee, clutching her head.

"_Strength… use…"_

"_War… Fr…For…"_

"_S… aw…"_

Small blips of voices rushed through her head. She couldn't make out more than a few words before she stumbled to her feet.

"What's going on?! What did you do to my head?!" Ferah demanded, her tail lashing about as she clutched her head in both hands, eyes squeezed shut.

"Caulla? Are you oka…" Razz started before Ferah cut her off.

"My name isn't Caulla! It's Ferah! What's happening to… AAAAAHHH!" Ferah screamed before she managed to barely get her bearings and ran out of the hut, stumbling a bit along the way before she eventually collapsed against a large tree and hugged her knees close to her chest and tail coiled around her waist, her head pressed to her knees until the voices and pain subsided. Some of it she'd been able to make out, but the vast majority of it had been blurry gibberish. What really had her freaking out was how it had gotten into her head in the first place. Even the parts she could decipher were completely foreign to her.

"What's going on…?" Ferah murmured to herself before she looked up from her knees and looked around. She was lost… Again… And she still didn't have water.

"Focus. Priorities. Water. Gotta find water." Ferah muttered to herself before she got to her feet and started searching once again for that blasted water. And search she did for quite a while, until she heard what sounded like an explosion in the distance. The sudden column of smoke lent more credence to that assessment.

Ferah froze as she saw it, her mind immediately rushing back to _that night_… The fire… the smoke… the screaming…

She wanted to run; to turn around and sprint as far as she could in the other direction. She didn't want to see another massacre. She didn't want to be reminded of that night. She didn't want to _remember! _Why couldn't she stop remembering?!

But she didn't do any of those things. Instead, she was compelled to go towards it. Her slow walk built to a jog, which then became a full-on sprint as she dashed through the undergrowth as fast as she could, easily leaping over small gaps and felled trees in one jump until she burst out of the forest to a decimated gray wasteland. It was littered with broken Horde war machines and ash. However, these had obviously been here for a very long time. They weren't the cause of the explosion. Instead, she kept running until she reached what looked like a quarry of some kind that had a Horde base, and that was when she saw the source of the smoke. It was several freshly destroyed Horde war machines and unconscious Horde soldiers, all of which seemed to have been incapacitated in one way or another by one person. One unusually shiny person at that.

It was hard to get a fix on how old the girl was. She looked pretty young, about Ferah's own age when Ferah saw her face. However, she also stood about eight feet tall, so that made it a bit harder for Ferah to tell properly.

Aside from being eight feet tall, the girl also had impractically long hair that was waving elegantly in the non-existent wind, was dressed in… Ferah wasn't sure how to describe it, but what stood out the most was the red cape and the sword. It was a two-handed, double edged sword with an unusually wide blade, almost wider than its own crossguard.

However, all of that failed to distract from the fact that she was currently staring down the barrel of a tank cannon, quite literally. Whoever was manning the controls wasn't so dense as to not seize this opportunity and the girl was hit full on by the blast, much to Ferah's horror. However, they miraculously survived with not that much of a scratch on them, though it was obvious _some _damage had been done. The girl had been knocked on her back and wasn't moving.

"Mara, dear!"

Ferah recognized that voice. It was that old woman from the forest. Ferah's eyes widened as she saw Razz to the unconscious girl's side. However, she wasn't the only one approaching the unconscious girl. Horde soldiers brandishing primed weapons were congregating and stalking closer and closer. Ferah's heart began to beat rapidly as her eyes widened. No. Not again. It couldn't happen again!

Without thinking, Ferah leapt into the air with tremendous force, silvery energy wrapping her right fist as she descended from on high, driving her fist into the ground as she touched the dirt. The result was the ground cracking and shaking, throwing the soldiers off balance. Ferah rushed forward and drove her knee into the first soldier before spinning around to kick another in the chest with the back of her heel, sending both soldiers skidding across the ground, both of them now sporting large dents in their armor. Ferah performed a backspring to avoid the tank's sudden fire and launched herself forward, energy encompassing both arms as she let out a shout before unleashing twin palm heel strikes that sent the tank skidding backwards suddenly before tipping over onto its side and catching fire. There was a massive dent where her strike had landed.

However, Ferah quickly realized that she'd left Razz and the girl undefended and rushed back, punching, kicking and occasionally just tossing soldiers out of her way until she was back to standing between the Horde and their quarry.

"HAAAAH!" Ferah roared before using her power up technique, an almost completely transparent silvery aura erupting around her as she took up her standard fighting stance. The Horde soldiers were a bit taken back by the display, but they kept advancing all the same. However, it seemed Razz had a solution for this.

"RAZZLE! DAZZLE!" She shouted behind Ferah before there was an explosion of strange colored smoke and they were suddenly back at Razz's hut.

"What was that?" Ferah asked once she'd finished coughing to expel the smoke from her lungs.

"Oh, Razz can't give away all her secrets, can she Caulla?" Razz joked, though that prompted Ferah to whirl around.

"I told you not to call me that! My name is Ferah! Ferah!" Ferah shouted, though she quickly sobered and felt shame start bubbling in her gut from her outburst. Her tail coiled slowly around her waist as she unconsciously grabbed her left elbow as the arm went limp.

"Sorry about that. It's just… that name… it did something to me…" She apologized but was surprised to find Razz rubbing her back consolingly.

"Ah, pay it no mind dearie. Some guests have actually thrown Razz out the window instead of just shouting." Razz replied amicably. Somehow, Ferah didn't she was kidding. However, before she could continue pondering the image of some random person chucking Razz headfirst out her window, a distraction arrived in the form of a rainbow colored horse… With wings… and a horn on its head…

"Okay, I am very confused." Was the first thing that came out of Ferah's mouth when the Horse glided down from the sky and cantered over to them.

"Oh, give Razz a moment." Razz stated before walking over to the horse.

"Take your time. I'll keep an eye on her." Ferah called out to Razz before finding a place to sit down and keep an eye on the girl in question, who'd undergone quite the significant transformation while Ferah hadn't been watching. For one, she wasn't eight feet tall anymore. Ferah put her closer to 5 feet six inches, maybe taller. She also had much shorter hair, pulled back in a ponytail. It had also changed shades, going from bright blonde to a more honey blonde. Still clutched in her right hand was that same sword, though it also had changed size alongside its wielder.

"Wonder what your story is." Ferah muttered to herself as she stared up at the sky. She sat there for a while before Razz and the horse… thing… returned from the forest. The horse immediately walked up to the girl and nudged her with its nose, which seemed to do the trick to wake her up.

"Hello, dearie." Razz greeted the girl as she sat up, muttering 'ow' as she held a hand to her torso. A reasonable response, considering she'd been blasted point blank by a tank.

"Swift Wind and I have been talking while you were asleep. He thanks you for coming to his rescue." Razz explained, gesturing to the horse.

"Wait, you left to talk with the horse?" Ferah asked, prompting the girl to look over at Ferah.

"Sorry, who're you?" She asked.

"My name's Ferah. I took over when you got knocked out." Ferah informed her before offering her hand to shake, which the girl took.

"Just for the future, standing in front of a tank barrel is a quick way to get turned into a mess." Ferah mentioned. The girl laughed embarrassedly while rubbing the back of her head.

"Yeah, I guess that was kind of dumb of me." She said, though when she looked at Ferah, she realized she wasn't laughing. She didn't seem upset or disapproving either though. If anything, she was confused by the girl's response.

"Sorry. My name's Adora." The girl, Adora, greeted in turn. Ferah cocked her head confusedly.

"Adora? But Razz called you Mara." Ferah mentioned. Adora grumbled and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, she's been doing that." Adora replied before making a twirling motion next to her head. Ferah cocked her head again, which only prompted Adora to make her own face of confusion.

"Oh, right! I didn't have the chance to introduce you to Cau… Sorry, Ferah." Razz stated as she smacked her head.

"Oh, well never mind that. Swift Wind also wanted me to tell you that 'Horsey' is a stupid name." She added.

"So, how are you feeling after that blast? Also, how did you _survive_ the blast?" Ferah inquired.

"I'm… Okay, actually. I think I know what I need to do now. If the princesses won't defend Etheria, then I will." Adora said, conviction in her voice.

"Okay, great. Still doesn't explain how you're _alive_ right now." Ferah replied.

"Oh, well… magic sword." Adora replied while holding up the sword in question.

"Ooh, I love seeing you two get along so well. You two are going to be such good friends, I can feel it!" Razz stated with excitement in her voice before turning to Ferah.

"You should go together! You both could use a friend, don't you think?" Razz suggested.

"Well, it would be nice to have another friend at Brightmoon… No pressure or anything." Adora thought aloud. Ferah's first instinct was to decline, but after she stopped to think about it for more than a few seconds, she realized that going with this complete stranger to Brightmoon was in many ways preferable to wandering around Etheria on her own.

"Yeah, I don't see why not." Ferah decided, which got a beaming smile from Adora.

"Well, Swift Wind? You mind giving us a lift back to Bright Moon?" Adora asked the horse, which snorted and bowed its head in a way that Adora took as affirmation. However, as she went to climb atop the horse's back, she turned back to look at Razz.

"Will I see you again?" Adora asked Razz, who took Adora's hand in both of her own.

"If you ever need me, you'll know where to find me." Razz assured her before walking into her hut while muttering something to herself.

"Well, I guess we should get going." Adora stated before climbing onto Swift Wind's back and offering a hand down to Ferah to help her aboard the flying horse. There was a few moments of stillness before the horse leapt into the air, flapped its wings and broke through the treeline. Adora was whooping with glee as they whipped through the air towards a castle in the distance, which had Ferah wondering just how she'd managed to get lost in the Whispering Woods at all, considering there was that whole castle to use as a landmark.

"So, what's your story?" Ferah asked Adora over the howling wind.

"Oh… Well… Can you wait until we get to Brightmoon? I'll have to explain it to the queen too." Adora requested. Ferah found this a bit strange but decided to go along with it. Though, it became much less strange when Ferah looked down and noticed a large Horde insignia plastered across the back of Adora's shirt. The moment she laid eyes on the red emblem, her fingers tightened around Adora's shoulders perhaps a bit too much, since Adora was suddenly tapping Ferah's hands rapidly to get her attention.

"You think you can ease up? I think you're giving me bruises." Adora asked kindly, though the wince was obvious in her voice. Ferah eased up, but she was still caught off-guard by the Horde sigil on Adora's back. However, she reminded herself that her first encounter with Adora had been watching her fighting a Horde detachment, so either she'd just scavenged this from them, or there was a longer story behind it. Ferah was inclined to believe the later. Besides, Adora had said she'd explain later, though not specifically about the Horde. Ferah imagined it would come up. And if it didn't, well… It'd come up, one way or another.

"What about you? You said you took over for me when I got knocked out. You know how to fight?" Adora asked Ferah, who immediately was distracted by the prospect of talking about fighting.

"I love fighting! I grew up learning how to fight from my ma. She was a master of the Sora no Ken fighting style and she taught a whole bunch of it to me." Ferah immediately began explaining, though she was going a bit too fast for Adora to keep up with it. It certainly didn't sound like the kind of fighting she'd been taught. Well, okay, sparring with Catra had been fun sometimes. And the training courses could be fun at times, but it didn't sound like fun the way that Ferah was talking about it.

Still, she let Ferah go on and on about how she loved fighting, and the trip to Brightmoon was all the swifter for it. The castle had been somewhat nearby when they took off, so getting back there via flying horse meant it only took a few minutes. Upon touching down outside the throne room, Adora dismounted Swift Wind and drew her supposedly magic sword from her back and took a deep breath. Ferah had also gotten off of the horse's back and was watching as Adora appeared to be hyping herself up for something.

"You can do this. You can do this." She muttered to herself before she held the sword up.

"For the honor of Grayskull." She stated in a low voice. Ferah covered her face as light burst forth from Adora for a few moments before the light died down enough that Ferah could look at her again without spots dancing in front of her eyes. Adora had assumed that eight foot tall form that Ferah had first encountered her in. After another deep breath, she stepped through the door into the throne room. Ferah followed several steps behind, partially because this felt more like Adora's moment, partially so that she could appreciate the scene. She watched as Adora strode into the room, the people in the court watched in awe as Adora approached the throne. Standing at the end of the throne room was who could only be the queen of Brightmoon. Her skin was tinted purple, with pink hair and almost entirely transparent wings. Her clothes consisted of along, blue cape, pink leotard and light purple leggings with purple boots and white gloves. A strange gem adorned her forehead, matching her pearl-drop earrings.

"I was trying to tell you. Mom, meet…" One of the people in the court started but was interrupted by the queen.

"She Ra…" The queen finished for her. Now Ferah was even more confused by Adora's whole naming problem. Adora said her name was Adora, Razz was calling her Mara, and now the queen was calling her She Ra? What was going on?

"Your majesty, I've come to pledge myself to the Rebellion. But first, there's something you should know." Adora began before there was a (by now familiar) flash of light and Adora had returned to her normal appearance.

"_Well, I guess this is where I get my explanation." _Ferah thought. Everyone in the throne room, sans the girl who had been speaking to the queen and a dark skinned boy dressed in some sort of armor that left his stomach exposed, which had Ferah questioning the practicality of it. He had a quiver on his back, and what appeared to be a collapsible bow. They must have known about Adora before Ferah had encountered her on the borders of the woods.

"Mom, this is Adora." The girl quickly said as she ushered Adora forward, who immediately got on one knee and presented the sword to the queen. Ferah took note of how the girl had referred to the queen as 'mom', making it obvious that the girl was a princess. She wore a dark purple, sleeveless leotard, which stopped at her mid-thigh, and lay underneath a light purple tunic with a blue diamond clasp. She also wore matching purple boots with white moons on the front and soles, light blue wings on each side, and multiple light blue points. She had light blue fingerless gloves, and a long white glove on her left arm. Additionally, she had a sparkling blue cape shaped like wings, attached to a circular plate on her left shoulder.

Ferah's gaze switched from the princess to Adora, who was beginning to speak.

"I know you have no reason to trust me, your majesty. But I have seen for myself, the atrocities that the Horde has committed against the people of Etheria, and I am ready to fight to stop them! If you give me the chance, I know I can help the Rebellion turn the tide of the war." Adora announced to the queen as she bowed her head and held the sword out towards the queen, who seemed completely at a loss for what to do.

"I know the legends of the warrior that the First Ones called 'She Ra'." The queen said as she took the sword and looked at the stone.

"They said she would return to us in the hour of our greatest need, to bring balance to Etheria. I never thought she was anything more than a myth." The queen continued as she looked down at Adora, sword held close.

"And yet you're here now, and in the uniform of a Horde soldier no less." The queen stated, the disbelief and a hint of distain evident in her voice when the uniform came up.

"You would pledge to stand with us against those you once served?" The queen asked. Adora let out a breath before answering.

"Yes." She said with conviction and a hint of relief.

"And Glimmer, you would vouch for and take responsibility for her?" The queen asked the girl, who nodded.

"Yes." She answered.

"_So that's her name… Glimmer…" _Ferah thought to herself. The name sounded a bit strange, but she conceded in her head that her own name was a bit unusual.

"Then rise. The Rebellion accepts your allegiance She Ra, Princess of Power!" The queen declared with a smile on her face as she handed the sword back to Adora amidst cheers from the crowd. At that point, even Ferah had forgotten where she was until one of the two teenagers who had Adora wrapped in a group hug pointed her out.

"Uh, who's that?" the princess (Glimmer, Ferah recalled) pointed out. Adora suddenly became much more sheepish.

"Sorry about that. I met her in the Whispering Woods. Her name's Ferah." Adora quickly introduced before walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. Ferah then realized that every eye in the throne room on her, and she suddenly was very conscious of the fact that... well, no getting around it, she looked like she'd just got home from rolling in thorns and dirt.

"She saved me from a Horde attack after I got a bit too cocky." Adora added, though she sort of wished she hadn't in retrospect. She didn't want to look incompetent right off the bat.

"Do you intend to join the Rebellion as well?" The queen asked. Ferah suddenly froze. She'd only decided that she'd be sticking with Adora since she didn't have anything better to do, plus it would be nice to be around civilization for a while. However, she hadn't thought so far ahead as possibly joining the Rebellion.

"I…" Ferah started but couldn't make words come out of her mouth. Her tail began coiling a bit as it flicked, indicating how unsure she felt. Seeing how on-the-spot Ferah was feeling, the queen decided to switch topics.

"What brought you to Brightmoon, Ferah? You look like you've been travelling for a long time." The queen inquired. Now that was something Ferah could answer.

"I was raised in the mountains, not far from a village. Ma was a martial artist and taught me everything I know about fighting. One day, someone my ma knew about came to town asking about her. They had a Horde sigil tattooed on their left shoulder. Ma got scared and we were gonna leave that night, but then the Horde attacked. I got knocked out and when I woke up… The village… Ma was…" Ferah tried to explain, but she couldn't muster the strength to get through the last bit. However, it wasn't hard for them to figure out what happened. Adora looked especially pained by this. Ferah's tail had stopped coiling and was now hanging limply behind her

"Then you should join us! We need everyone we can get, and you can help stop the Horde from trampling over Etheria!" Glimmer exclaimed. Ferah hugged herself a bit as she averted her eyes.

"It's not that simple… My ma… the Horde killed her master and she set out for revenge. It brought out something dark in her and… in the end, I think that's what killed her. She tried to fight the Horde singlehandedly again when they attacked the village… she… didn't make it. She didn't want what happened to her… that dark side she warned me about… She didn't want it to happen to me. That's why I've been trying to stay out of the fight. I don't want to end up on the same path that killed ma…" Ferah explained. She could see understanding in the queen's eyes, maybe a bit in the boy and Adora's eyes, but not so much in Glimmer's. Still, she didn't press on it.

"I can help a bit, but I need to be able to get out as soon as I need to." Ferah offered. The queen seemed hesitant to take such an offer but nodded.

"Any help is welcome to the Rebellion. We welcome you, Ferah." The queen stated. Now it was Ferah's turn to be in the middle of a group hug. However, it didn't last very long as they realized that among other things, Ferah hadn't paid a visit to the land of hot water and soap in quite some time. It was something Ferah became rapidly embarrassed about when she noticed everyone shying away with wrinkled noses.

"I'll show you where the baths are…" Glimmer muttered awkwardly before gesturing for Ferah and Adora to follow her.

"I should probably wash my clothes too…" Ferah muttered, only for Glimmer to balk.

"No way! Those things are shredded! We're getting you some new ones!" She exclaimed. As much as Ferah wanted to argue about that, she had to agree that her current clothes were probably not going to last much longer.

As the two new members of the Rebellion were led off by the princess, the queen watched their retreating backs, stroking her chin curiously. Something about that girl, Ferah, reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Perhaps we should have a talk…" the queen murmured to herself as they vanished from sight.

* * *

**Alright, so this ran longer than I thought it would. Still pretty good chapter I think, though I'm probably going to be adding a few bits and pieces to it before publishing, but after I finish the closing notes.**

**Creativity: Next chapter's gonna be real interesting, since we can actually have them doing some proper interacting. **

**Author: Indeed. Well, not much else to say here. Thank you for reading, please review and we'll see ya next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Good day, everyone! How are you all doing?**

**Creativity: Well, I know you're on exam fatigue, so I know you're completely out of it.**

**Author: Yeah, it has been pretty exhausting. But, not the worst. **

**So, before we get into the chapter, I figured I'd do a little bit of… Well, I guess it's technically self-promotion, but not really? I'll let you all judge on that. Anyway, I added a section on my personal page called "Review Etiquette" which is basically a breakdown of what I look for in reviews, and also a place where I shamelessly vent about trends in reviews I see that just irk me. Give it a read if you wish, and let me know your thoughts on it, perhaps share additions or revisions if it strikes your fancy.**

**Creativity: Well, that's enough of that. We should probably get to the chapter proper.**

**Author: You're right. Now then, allow us to proudly present chapter 6 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

"I can't believe mom agreed to let stay in Brightmoon!"

"Yeah… Awesome…"

Ferah unconsciously hugged her arms as she trailed a little behind Adora and princess Glimmer, the tip of her tail curling and uncurling as it was wound around her waist. Glimmer had been talking non-stop throughout the whole tour of the castle, mostly (practically entirely) to Adora. It was sort of understandable. From what she understood, Adora, or at least her eight-foot alter-ego was practically a myth come to life, so it was understandable that Adora would be the center of attention. Ferah didn't want to be the center of attention either. She'd grown up in the mountains and had only had human interaction a couple times a month, and it was usually only a small handful of people at a time, at most. Brightmoon was so populated that Ferah wished she could shrink down or turn invisible to avoid all the eyes on her. It also didn't help that many glances her way immediately turned to her tail, to the point where she'd unconsciously wound it up around her waist to avoid people staring at it. Of course, there was something else for them to stare at. And smell, for that matter. Which brought Ferah to a question.

"Not to sound impatient, but where are the baths? I'm kind of starting to get really uncomfortable with all the looks." Ferah quietly asked Glimmer, who suddenly had a moment of realization that made Ferah's stomach drop a bit. Had she forgotten that Ferah was even there?!

"Right! Sorry about that. When we get to your room it'll have a bath you can use." Glimmer assured her before she went back to 'tour' mode.

"So, you've both seen the Dining Hall, the Throne Room, the Portrait Hall, so the last stop for now on the grand tour is…" Glimmer stated before pausing for dramatic effect. She then threw open the doors with the proud announcement of "Your new room! Tada!"

Both Ferah and Adora had very similar reactions, those being for their mouths to having open a bit while they looked around at the massive, domed chamber. Ferah was gobsmacked. This was a bedroom?! It looked like a palace in and of itself!

"It's like… three times the size of the cabin I grew up in…" Ferah murmured through her daze, though only Adora seemed to hear her, as Glimmer was now giving a rundown of the entire room while teleporting around. Ferah had been spooked by that the first time she'd seen Glimmer vanish in a flash of purple sparkles, then reappear not too far away, but she'd done so numerous times during the tour since then, so Ferah was more desensitized to it, at least for now.

"It's pretty standard. You've got your vanity, the bathroom, crystals, bell pull, tea nook, more crystals, bed, desk, and of course, the waterfall." She proudly explained. True to her word, there was indeed, a small waterfall and pond connected to it. Ferah wasn't exactly sure how she'd missed that in her initial once-over.

"Is the waterfall for showering?" Adora asked with uncertainty, to which Glimmer responded with laughter.

"Good one, Adora! Waterfall for _showering_, haha!" Glimmer laughed. Ferah looked ponderous for a second.

"It wouldn't be the same, but ma and I did used to occasionally have meditation sessions under waterfalls in the mountains." She thought aloud, which immediately got strange looks from both Adora and Glimmer.

"You meditated under waterfalls?" Adora clarified slowly. Ferah just blinked at her.

"Yeah. Why?" She asked.

"I think the better question is, _why _were you meditating under waterfalls?" Glimmer asked.

"It's good training, being able to maintain meditation while you have literal tons of water constantly crashing down on you prepares you to better maintain focus in a fight. Also, as a side benefit, you'll find yourself leaving the waterfall about as clean as you can get." Ferah replied simply. Adora and Glimmer exchanged looks before shrugging.

"I can't exactly argue with the latter. Well, I better show Ferah to her room. Have a good night! My room's down the hall if you need anything!" Glimmer said before she grabbed Ferah's arm to leave. Ferah could hear the beginnings of protest from Adora, but the door shut before they could be heard.

"I think Adora wanted to say something." Ferah stated a bit meekly as Glimmer walked her a few doors down.

"Oh, I'm sure she'll be fine. If it's important, I'm sure she'll just come ask me." Glimmer replied confidently before opening the door to Ferah's accommodations. Ferah almost wanted to fall to her knees with relief that they weren't as extravagant as Adora's, but she managed to refrain herself. Ma had repeatedly made it clear that such an action (among others) could be seen as rude and/or ungrateful. The bed wasn't as extravagant, there wasn't a tea nook or a waterfall and there weren't crystals everywhere. There was a balcony though, which Ferah did appreciate. Also, there was a curtain that could be drawn to separate the bathroom area from the rest of the room.

"So, vanity and bathroom are over there, there's a desk and dresser over there, and I'll have a few people come up to take measurements for your new clothes. Oh, and bathroom has all the toiletries you could ask for. I'll be in the room at the far end of the hall if you need anything!" Glimmer explained before she left, the door shutting behind her. Ferah took a deep breath as she looked around. First thing's first, bath. Oh Etheria, how she desperately needed a bath.

She made her way over to the bathroom section of the room and began routing through it until she found the soap. There were a couple of other things there though that she didn't recognize, such as 'shampoo', 'conditioner' and 'bubble bath'. In the rare instances where ma had insisted they put something in their hair, it was usually just soap, though one time ma had attempted to use something else in a futile attempt to tame Ferah's spiky mane. It hadn't gone very well.

And then there was the tub. It was massive and rounded and stood on four legs, which was strange in and of itself to Ferah. And it had a faucet with taps! She knew what they were since the old cabin had that in its sink, but she'd never seen one, or even heard of one on a tub before. She was still examining the tub when she heard a knocking at the door before it cracked open a bit.

"Excuse me, miss. Princess Glimmer informed us that you were in need of a new wardrobe." A voice from outside the room called in.

"Oh, right! Come in!" Ferah called back as she stepped away from the tub and walked over to the door. Immediately, four women dressed in white, blue and purple robes bustled into the room and hurried over to Ferah. They were carrying an assortment of items, including (but not limited to) a sturdy purple box, tape measures, a clipboard and some sort of weird-looking quill, as well as a few simple garments made of a sky-blue material.

Before Ferah knew what was happening, she was standing on the box with her arms held out to the sides and her feet shoulder-width apart while the women poked and prodded, taking measurements, jotting stuff down on the clipboard and occasionally making a face, likely do to the fact that Ferah _still _hadn't taken a bath. Soon enough, they all left and Ferah drew the curtain around the bathroom area before she turned the taps and began testing the water. At first, she'd been surprised as to why there were two taps and was surprised to learn that one the two different taps allowed one to control the temperature of the water. After finding the perfect temperature of water, she waited until the tub was reasonably full and slipped into it with a long sigh of relief. She could already feel the _clean_ feeling seeping into her bones.

After about ten minutes of just basking in the hot water, Ferah decided that it'd probably be a good idea to finish up and grabbed the soap. She got to work with scrubbing off the accumulated dirt and grime from a few weeks without a proper bath, paying special attention to her tail. She hated it when she had dirt in the appendage. She could feel it constantly and it drove her insane until she could get it out.

Once she'd finished cleaning up, she drained the tub and grabbed a fluffy pink robe (She wasn't sure about the cover, but beggars can't be choosers) and wrapped herself up on it while she waited for her clothes to arrive. It was about another hour before there was a knocking at the door and behind it was one of the castle servants, carrying three large boxes in their arms.

"Your clothes, miss. Let us know if there are any alterations you wish for as soon as possible." The servant said before quickly hurrying off. Ferah wasn't quite sure why they were in such a hurry, but she just shrugged and closed the door, locking it so that she could go through her new clothes in peace. When she opened up the first one box, the contents had her feeling a bit…mixed. Inside was a midnight blue long-sleeve shirt, a sky-blue short-sleeve tunic that was tight at the torso but loose around the arms, midnight-blue pants and black boots, with an ocean-blue sash to complete it. After trying them on, they fit reasonably well, but a few experimental motions made it clear that these weren't exactly a good fit for a martial artist, even though they looked the part. Plus, she had to admit that they didn't look that bad.

The next set was much more to her liking. It was obviously inspired by what she had arrived in, extensive wear and tear aside. It consisted of a midnight-blue sleeveless shirt cut to show her midriff with a sleeveless light-blue tunic that was open at the front, with two long strips of midnight-blue cloth to wrap around her arms. Her pants were baggier and also light-blue, with the same black boots as before. To tie it all together was a familiar ocean-blue sash.

After trying on this outfit, Ferah knew exactly what her go-to outfit was going to be. This one was much easier to move in and throw punches and kicks without worrying about the material restraining her. Or worse, ripping.

Then came the last one, which Ferah had absolutely no idea what to make of when she saw it. It was just a basic shirt long-sleeve shirt and pants, made of some material that, while comfortable in hand, did not feel structurally sound. Nor did it look like it was made to be worn out… anywhere. After trying them on, she still couldn't see what the purpose behind them was. Sure, they were comfy, incredibly so, but she still couldn't really imagine a scenario where she would where these anywhere, no matter how comfy they were. It was as if they were just meant to be comfy and… wow, they really were comfy, weren't they?

In fact, they were so comfy that Ferah could feel her eyes drooping a bit. She slowly wandered over to the bed and flopped down on it, her brain slowly processing how soft the blankets and mattress. It wasn't much longer before Ferah had dozed off, softly snoring into a pillow. She was so out of it that she didn't even hear a tapping at the door or the locked knob shaking a bit before whoever was on the other side of it gave up and left.

* * *

_The next day…_

Ferah's eyes cracked open slowly as she blearily blinked. She couldn't remember when she'd fallen asleep, but now that she was comfortable. It didn't matter that she could see the morning light streaming through the balcony door… THE MORNING LIGHT WAS WHERE!?

Immediately Ferah leapt out of the immensely comfortable bed and onto the floor, frantically looking around and trying to remember what had happened before it hit her. She was in Brightmoon as a guest of the royal family. She'd met an apparent legend made flesh the previous day, and somehow got roped into helping with the rebellion. And she'd slept in perhaps one of the most comfortable beds she'd ever slept in. It was certainly a far cry from the cold dirt she'd been sleeping in for the last year and a half. However, she realized that she'd slept in. She should have been going through morning training half an hour ago by her estimate!

Quickly (and reluctantly) shedding the clothes she'd slept in, she quickly threw on the second set of clothes she'd received the previous night and hurried out the door, just in time to see one of the castle guard passing by. She had dark skin and what appeared to be a horizontal scar just above her nose.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if there were any training grounds I could use." Ferah asked the guard, who gestured down the hallway to a balcony.

"You'll see it if you look off that balcony. There's a staircase nearby, pretty hard to miss." She said before continuing on her way.

"Thank you!" She called to the guard before hurrying off to the training field. Sure enough, it wasn't very hard to find. It was a wide open area with a dirt ground and a few target dummies laid out around the outside. There was even a marked off area for spars. Ferah wasn't sure how much use she'd get out of that, but it was there.

After doing some push-ups, sit-ups and stretches to warm up, Ferah got to work on a few simple katas to get back into the swing of things. While she'd done her best to stay on top of daily training while she was on the road, she needed to conserve energy for travelling. Thus, she hadn't been able to do as much training as she would have liked. Now however, she could make up for lost time. Her speed began to pick up and she transitioned into more complex motions, incorporating leaping and flipping strikes, transitioning from springs to kicks and back into springs, then into a series of punches and into another spring. She lost herself in the motion and forms, one into the other until she was suddenly in front of one of the target dummies, almost completely transparent energy gathered around her arms as she unleashed a two handed palm-heel strike, causing the target dummy to not just break, but explode! Ferah leaned back, covering her face as her face suddenly flushed, looking around hesitantly to see if anyone had been watching. She didn't see anyone on her first pass, but her second had her noticing that the queen herself had been watching, and had her hand covering her mouth, eyes wide in surprise.

Immediately, Ferah's face turned red as she quickly began walking off the practice field as fast as she could, completely silent and tail held low until she exited the field, at which point the ranting began.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why would you do that?! Literally the first thing you do on your first day is BREAK their training equipment?! Oh, and now they're REALLY going to start pestering you about fighting the Horde since you just couldn't _help it_ and HAD to broadcast as loud as you could that could BLOW UP their training equipment with a single punch! Why?! Why would you do that?! Way to make a first impression!" She ranted to herself as she fast-walked down the corridor, though she quieted down quite a bit when she saw a few people walking towards her. However, she couldn't quite beat down the furious red flush across her face, nor the way her tail was constantly coiling and uncoiling, flicking about with obvious agitation.

Eventually she realized she was completely lost in the castle and eventually found herself on a balcony, whereupon she leaned back on the stone railing slapped both hands over her face and let out a loud "UUUUURGH!" of embarrassment and frustration.

"What's got you all worked up?"

Ferah looked up to see Adora, Glimmer and that boy she had seen with them yesterday passing by, looking understandably confused as to why Ferah was currently making noises that sounded like incredibly strained screaming while pressing her hands really hard into her own face. It had been the latter who had asked the question.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Ferah replied glumly.

"Rough first day?" Adora asked sympathetically.

"Something like that, and it's barely even started…" Ferah muttered as she crossed her arms and glanced off to the side, her tail coiling slowly around her waist.

"Do you, maybe wanna talk about it?" Glimmer asked. Ferah groaned and rubbed her forehead.

"I wanted to get some training in this morning, so I went down to the practice field and did my usual warmup, albeit a bit reduced and quick, since I'd slept in. So, it was all going well, then I got a little to into it and might have broken a training dummy." Ferah ground out. Glimmer looked at her with a weird look on her face.

"Wait, that's it? You slept in and broke a training dummy? Seriously, those things are meant to be broken. I've broken a few while training _this!_" Glimmer said before she held her right fist aloft, glowing pink sparkles clustering around the appendage. As surprising as this display was, Ferah was feeling too down to question further.

"I, ah… might have… blown it up… with one… hit…" Ferah mumbled a bit, which had Glimmer and Adora pause for a second. Glimmer began chuckling at an awkwardly high pitch as she began digging around in her ear.

"ah, hahaha, sorry. Could you say that again, because for a moment I thought you said you blew up a training dummy with just one hit." Glimmer replied. The flush across Ferah's face as she looked away again was all the answer they needed.

"Blew it up…" Adora clarified with her jaw agape.

"…Yep…" Ferah said.

"With one hit…" the boy continued.

"One straight punch…" Ferah answered. The trio's mouths were all opening and closing like fish.

"Did I mention that this happened _right _when the queen was walking by?" Ferah added as she slumped over as her tail uncoiled from her waist and hung limp behind her. The news regarding her mother got a cringe from Glimmer but confused looks from Adora and the boy.

"Well, it was definitely the right call to suggest you come with us on the relief mission!" The boy announced, which immediately banished all of Ferah's previous fixation on her embarrassment from her mind.

"Say what?" Ferah asked.

"Oh, right. Queen Angella approved me, Adora and Glimmer to go on a relief mission to Plumeria. Their food supply took a hit due to Horde activity in the area and they requested aid, so we're sending aid. Just relief, no fighting." The boy told Ferah, who had been frowning a bit before he mentioned that it was just a relief mission.

"Alright, I'll tag along." Ferah agreed, a decision that was met with cheers by the three other teens. Then Ferah remembered something.

"I don't think we were ever introduced." Ferah said to the boy, who paused for a moment and began considering for a moment.

"Hey, you're right! Wow, how did we forget to do that? Well, the name's Bow. I'm into archery and inventing." Bow introduced himself. Ferah smiled a bit and offered her hand to shake.

"I'm Ferah. I like fighting." Ferah introduced herself in turn as Bow shook her hand.

"Yeah, I imagine someone who can blow up a training dummy with one punch would like fighting." Bow replied with a light laugh. Ferah had to admit, he was very easy to talk to.

"Well, if you like fighting so much, why not fight the Horde? Can't exactly go wrong there?" Glimmer pointed out, though the looks she was getting from Adora and Bow indicated they wanted her to be quiet. Ferah signed and looked away a bit.

"I don't expect you to get why yet. I didn't get it until a year and a half ago, and it still took me half a year to process what it meant. I'm still not sure I understand it all." Ferah answered glumly. She could tell that Glimmer wasn't exactly satisfied with that answer, but Ferah couldn't hold it against her. She didn't have the perspective yet, and Ferah prayed that Glimmer wouldn't have to share it with her soon.

"Besides, there's more than one way to win a battle. Ma always drilled that one into my head." Ferah added.

"That's a lesson you could do with, Glimmer."

Everyone jumped as a new voice entered the conversation before turning to see queen Angella approaching them.

"Your majesty!" Ferah exclaimed before bowing.

"Please, enough of that for now. It gets tiresome day in and day out." Angella said in a ever so slightly exasperated tone before she stopped in front of the group of four.

"What is it, mom? Something about the mission?" Glimmer asked, but Angella shook her head.

"Actually, I wish to have a quick word with young Ferah, in private." The queen informed them, to which Ferah felt her stomach drop and her face flush once again. Glimmer winced towards Ferah in sympathy before leading Bow and Adora off while the queen walked over to the railing and looked out towards the Whispering Woods.

"Queen Angella, if this is about damaging the training equipment, I promise I'll be more careful in the future…" Ferah started apologizing before Angella quickly put an end to that.

"Oh, I'm hardly bothered by that. We have plenty of them. I merely wished to inquire about where you learned the Sora no Ken school of combat." The queen informed her, making Ferah's breath catch for a moment before she responded. Her tail was flicking a bit, showing her feeling of being unsure.

"You… You know my fighting style?" Ferah asked, her tone one of mild shellshock.

"It's hard to forget a strike such as the one you used to destroy that training dummy. I feared the art had been lost so long ago to the Horde's rampage." Angella said with a brief smile before mention of the Horde came up.

"My ma taught me the Sora no Ken for as long as I can remember. She never really talked too much about where or who she learned it from, but she did occasionally let one or two things slip." Ferah said as she turned to look at the sky. There was a brief moment of silence before the queen spoke again.

"I remember when I first met the final master of the Sora no Ken school. It was during the early days of our war with the Horde and we were looking for as many allies as we could we could gather. We had sent word a few days ahead of us and they'd been sent back saying that we were expected. The master greeted us at the entrance. He had a commanding, almost intimidating presence at first, but he was courteous and welcoming to us." Angella reminisced. Ferah was listening with rapturous attention.

"I don't think ma ever mentioned her master by name. I always wondered what he was like. What did he say when you met?" Ferah asked. The queen sighed.

"He told us that he couldn't pledge his school to the Rebellion's cause, even if he believed in it. He said his students had to find their own path once they left his school. He also warned us that if we tried to recruit his students within the borders of his school, we would be leaving with missing teeth and broken bones, regardless of our status." Angella shared with a small chuckle at the end. Ferah couldn't help but giggle a bit too.

"That sounds like something he would say, based on what ma told me about him." Ferah replied.

"However, what I remember most was one of the advanced classes I saw when we were leaving. It was one of the spars, between a male and female student. I remember seeing those same strange energies that you channeled during your training, and when their strikes met, you could _feel_ the wind rush past you from the sheer force of their strikes." The queen told her. Ferah blushed a bit and looked away, her tail curling around her waist.

"You can imagine my horror when we heard news of the Horde's assault on the school and the apparent death of its master. I'd held out what hope I could that some remnants of the martial art had survived, if only to preserve as much of Etheria's culture as possible. And now, here you are, perhaps the last living practitioner of the art." Angella continued. Now Ferah was feeling a bit nervous. Not out of a sense of danger, though.

"From what I learned after meeting them, the Fist of the Sky and those who master it have been closely interwoven with Etheria's culture and myths, with some claiming that legendary masters could outstrip the rulers of the kingdoms. Part of me didn't believe it, but at the same time, I couldn't help but wonder." Angella said before turning to Ferah.

"Believe it or not, there is a point to all my ramblings, young Ferah. Despite how easily it has faded in and out of the memory of Etheria, the Sora no Ken is interwoven in tales of good and evil across all of Etheria, and now you stand as possibly the last of that line of proud warriors. When word gets out, you will become a symbol to Etheria, not unlike She Ra. I don't tell you this out of a desire to keep you within the Rebellion, or to frighten you. I merely wish to prepare you for what will come when word of the forgotten art resurfaces. It has been nearly a century since the last great story of the Sora no Ken, and with the war dragging on like this I suspect that people will begin looking to both you and She Ra as cornerstones of the Rebellion, whether you wish it or not." The queen informed her, a look of sympathy on her face. After all, Adora had asked for this when she publicly appeared before Brightmoon as She Ran and pledged herself to the Rebellion, whereas Ferah had specifically made a point of distancing herself from the publicity of it since she was obviously still dealing with stuff and didn't want to expose herself to the cause of multiple…issues that she was having. Unfortunately, it might not be possible if Ferah was forced to fight and word got out afterwards.

"Thanks for the heads up, queen Angella. And… thank you for telling me about the school." Ferah replied to the queen, who could only give another expression of sympathy before turning to leave. However, Ferah had one more question.

"Your majesty, you mentioned records about the Sora no Ken. Would I be able to read those records myself?" She asked. The queen turned back and gave a brief smile.

"Of course. The records are in the library. Just ask the librarian and he'll find you what you're looking for." She replied before leaving. Ferah turned and hurried off in the direction that Adora, Glimmer and Bow had gone when Angella had asked for a word alone. Luckily, they hadn't gone very far, and it appeared they hadn't been eavesdropping either! Ferah had been certain they'd have tried to. It's what she would have done (damn her teenage curiosity).

"So, what did my mom wanna talk about with you?" Glimmer immediately asked upon Ferah greeting them. Well, that explained the lack of eavesdropping.

"She mainly wanted to talk to me about my fighting style. Apparently they went to the school it was originally taught in at the beginning of the war to try and recruit the martial artists into the Rebellion. The master said that, while his sympathies lay with the Rebellion, he wasn't going to send his students to fight in a war, and that they'd have to choose for themselves what action they'd take in it. He also apparently threatened intense bodily harm if they tried to recruit students on school grounds." Ferah informed them, which got a jaw-drop from Glimmer.

"He _said _that to my _MOM?!_" Glimmer gasped. Her reaction was hard to peg down. On the one hand, her reaction was to be horrified, which was understandable. On the other hand, it also looked like Glimmer was trying to tamp down quite a few rounds of laughter.

"Well, we're gonna be leaving on a mission tomorrow, right? What should I do to prepare?" Ferah asked.

"Well, I don't think we'll be out too long, so just some basic supplies should work. Plumeria's pretty close by, so we won't be spending more than a few days on this mission cumulatively." Bow replied.

"Alright. So, just some basics for on the road. What time do we leave?" Ferah continued.

"My mom says we leave at dawn, so in a few hours. Glimmer answered promptly. Ferah nodded.

"Alright. I'll be sure I'm ready. Anything else I should…" Ferah started before she was interrupted by a loud rumbling noise. There was a few moments of searching for the source of the noise, before they noticed Ferah's embarrassed face and her hand on the back of her head. Her tail was coiling and uncoiling as she averted her eyes.

"Wait… Have you not eaten yet?" Glimmer asked, slightly aghast.

"It ah… kind of slipped my mind. It was always training before breakfast back home." Ferah explained. Without warning, Glimmer had seized Ferah's hand and was dragging her through the castle with Bow and Adora following behind.

"This will not do! Not do, I say!" Glimmer announced loudly as she continued to drag Ferah through the castle, mainly able to do so because Ferah was too dumbfounded to protest or try to attempt to free herself from Glimmer's astonishingly strong grip. Eventually they reached their mysterious destination, which Ferah realized was the dining hall. After making sure that Ferah was seated, Glimmer marched down towards the kitchen doors and dipped out of sight for a few seconds before coming back out with a smile on her face.

"Give it ten minutes or so. Fifteen tops." She told Ferah, who looked very confused. Well, up until several people emerged from the kitchens holding trays that were covered with a wide assortment of food that Ferah had never even seen before! The aroma alone was making her drool. As it turned out, she wasn't the only one hungry, as there was now a chorus of growling stomachs. Ferah turned around to look at Adora and Bow, who were now averting their gazes and rubbing the back of their heads.

"I might have eaten a bit light before coming to the castle this morning…" Bow said embarrassedly.

"And my nerves might have spoiled my appetite earlier…" Adora added. Glimmer simply shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Well, it's a good thing I said this was a meal for four." Glimmer revealed with a wide grin as everyone seated themselves and they began attacking the food. At least, at the beginning. Everyone had finished one plate by the time they realized, much to their horror, that Ferah was already going back for thirds.

"Umm… Ferah? How much do you intend to eat?" Bow asked slowly as his eyes were glued to the rapidly dwindling pile of food in front of the martial artist. Ferah swallowed her mouthful and shrugged.

"Probably a plate after this. I don't wanna overdo it after all." Ferah replied before continuing to wreak untold havoc upon second breakfast. The three other teens were suddenly very thankful that they'd finished their first plates already, as witnessing the unholy amounts of food that Ferah was able to consume in one sitting had ruined their appetites. Once Ferah had finished eating, she let out a contented sigh.

"I don't remember the last time I was able to eat like that. And the food… That's easily the best meal I've ever had!" Ferah praised as everyone just let out an internal sigh, grateful that the horrible spectacle was over.

"Well, I should probably get packed for the trip. Bedroll, water, rations… Honestly, I don't really think I'll need to do much beyond refill my canteen." Ferah said, though it quickly turned to just talking to herself.

"Where does it all go?" Adora wondered in a dazed voice.

"There's not enough physical room in the human body to accommodate that much food." Bow stuttered as his brain tried to process what he was seeing.

"Mom is gonna freak when she sees this." Glimmer moaned as she envisioned the look of horror on Angella's face that would arise from bearing witness to the appetite of Ferah.

"Well, I'll see you all at the gates!" Ferah told them before she navigated back to her room and retrieved her still-packed rucksack and refilled the canteen from the sink in the bathroom area of her room. After all that was done, she made her way through the castle, occasionally stopping to ask someone directions before she made it to the front gate of the castle. Soon enough, Bow, Glimmer and Adora as She Ra arrived. She Ra was currently pulling a large cart of humanitarian supplies behind her with incredible ease.

"_I am definitely going to have to ask to spar with you when we get home."_ Thought Ferah as the they approached.

"Well, shall we?" Glimmer asked. Ferah, Bow and She Ra nodded, and they all crossed the castle bridge and into began their march towards Plumeria.

"So, have you ever been to Plumeria, Ferah? I mean, travelling for a year and half, you must have been to some pretty interesting places." Glimmer asked. Ferah shook her head.

"I travelled pretty slowly, and I never really visited any towns. I might have passed through their borders or the borders of another kingdom for all I know." Ferah replied.

"Sounds like a pretty lonely trip." Bow commented. Ferah sighed.

"It was, but I was mostly focused on getting away from the mountains I grew up in. I didn't really have a destination in mind." She replied.

"Well, chin up. Now you get to see the world properly this time!" Bow encouraged, getting a smile from Ferah.

"Yeah. I think I'd like that." Ferah agreed as they stepped into continued down the path. It was a long road ahead, but now Ferah didn't have to walk it alone.

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it for today! Man, this one ran WAY long than I initially anticipated.**

**Creativity: No kidding! Plus, there were a couple of revisions here and there, adjusting the order of events a few times, stuff like that.**

**Author: But, it's still done! Much like my exams are too! Oh, MAN does it feel good to be FREE!**

**So yeah, the Best Friend Squad is off to Plumeria! Not much else to say, other than it's gonna be a while between updates again. We've got a couple other projects to attend to, plus other holiday things to attend to. **

**Well, I think that's it from me for now! Thank you all for reading, please review and we'll see you next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Why, hello there! I didn't see you there before. Welcome to Fist of the Sky!**

**Author: Who gave you intro authority?**

**Creativity: Ah… heheh… no… one…?**

**Author: Well then, I do believe we have a problem here. Pardon me a moment…**

**Creativity: Umm… Sure? Why are you heading over to the supply closet?**

**Author: Oh, just grabbing some supplies for New Years, like one of my personal favorites…**

**Creativity: Oh no…**

**Author: Oh yes… MY PATENTED NEW YEARS FESTIVIZER! Guaranteed to light up the night sky and fill it with the echoing din of festivity! **

_**Author has produced giant, over the top rocket launcher with many additional rocket and explosion-dispelling devices attached and is now aiming it at Creativity.**_

**Creativity: GREAT MOTHER OF…!**

**Author: LANGUAGE!**

_**Author unleashes the full might of the Festivizer on Creativity, resulting in pandemonium, smoke, explosions and fun party noises. The smoke clears and Creativity is unconscious and smoking still while Author is lounging on master chair, Festivizer propped over his shoulder.**_

**Author: I run a very tight ship here.**

**So sorry about that, now where was I? Oh, yes! We're doing the intro for the seventh chapter of Fist of the Sky!**

**So, our Best Friend Squad in the making, Adora as She Ra, Princess Glimmer, Bow and Ferah were on their way to Plumeria, relief supplies in tow. What misadventures will they face on their Humanitarian mission? Find out next, on Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Do you know when we'll be there?"

"No."

"Do have any guesses?"

"No."

"Could you at least try to have a conversation with _somebody?_ It's better than just plodding in silence."

"Why bother when the next question you're going to ask is 'are we there yet'?"

Ferah groaned in exasperation as she threw up her hands, her tail swiping about before she remembered to wind it around her waist. She'd accidentally tripped Bow a few hours ago with her tail and despite his repeated insistence he was fine, she'd noticed the archer had been keeping his distance and constantly checking out of the corner of his eye that he wasn't within swiping range of the appendage.

"If it helps, we're at least within Plumeria's borders. It shouldn't be too long before we get to princess Perfuma." Glimmer told Ferah. The two had been going back and forth with Ferah asking about how close they were or otherwise trying to find something to talk about with her, since she still felt awkward talking to Bow after she tripped him, and Adora/She Ra was currently hauling the cart. Not that the task was particularly strenuous, but she was currently pulling it instead of lifting it since the branches were lower-hanging in this section of forest and considering how nature-centric the people of Plumeria were, they didn't want to get off on the wrong foot by snapping the branches off trees because they wanted to carry the cart instead of hauling it. Thus, they had to contend with rocks, bumps, dips and other such annoyances that required a bit of forethought and concentration.

Ferah and She Ra traded out on hauling the cart a few times along the way, with the most recent switch being about forty five minutes ago by Ferah's estimate, though that guess could very well be skewed by the fact that she couldn't see the sun to make a guess. Luckily, Bow leapt in to rescue them from the monotony.

"So Ferah, what was it like to grow up in the mountains? If you're comfortable sharing, that is." Bow asked before adding the little addendum very hastily.

"Well, we only had running water in the sink, and there was no temperature control for it. I don't really know how it worked, but ma said it used rain barrels out back and some sort of… 'suction system?' I didn't really get it. We almost never wore shoes or boots unless we were heading in to town or otherwise going on a long hike. We always bathed in a stream that was near the house. It was always cold, but I really liked it. Heh, I remember one time when I was fifteen, I decided to hike down to the waterfall that the stream came from, and then started trying to climb my way up. I got about a third, maybe halfway up before ma caught me and told me to get down. Boy, did she _really_ let me have it for that one." Ferah told them, leading them to all stare at her for a few moments before She Ra accidentally rolled the cart over a dip in the road, causing it to jostle. Luckily, she managed to avoid having anything being thrown from the cart and everyone remembered to keep their eyes on the road.

"So, was this waterfall really big?" Glimmer asked, trying to sound casual about the whole thing. Ferah shrugged.

"I mean, it was pretty strong. We normally meditated under it and meditating under a weak waterfall is no good. It wasn't backbreaking though. Besides, there was an even bigger one downstream I wanted to try climbing once I conquered the first one. Ma expressly forbade me from going near that one after she found out what I was planning." Ferah shared before she felt the familiar sensation of her eyes welling up a bit. She immediately tamped down the sensation before rubbing her eyes a bit. She Ra noticed the action and frowned a bit but opted not to press on the matter. Besides, it was right about that point that they heard the sound of voices in the distance, likely children based on the pitch.

"Wow, I guess we're closer than we thought." Glimmer commented as they picked up the pace. As a nice bonus, the branches were no longer so low to the ground, so She Ra could heft the cart above her head with ease and not have to worry about the rocks and potholes. After hopping over a large root they felt a sense of relief at the sight of the kingdom's residents. There were kids running about playing, adults going about their business, all behaving as though there wasn't a war going on and the enemy wasn't camped on their territory. Setting aside that particular bit of unnerving realization, Ferah couldn't help but feel something was wrong. It was just a sensation in the air. Not in a 'we just walked into/are about to walk into a trap' kind of sensation, but more of a 'something is inherently wrong with the area' kind of sensation.

"Do you guys feel that?" Ferah asked as she looked around.

"Not really but check that out." Bow pointed out. Following his gesture, Ferah saw that the plants in this section of the forest _really_ weren't doing so well. Ferah's heart fell.

"I guess that'd explain it." Ferah said sadly.

"Mom didn't mention anything about the plants dying." Glimmer muttered as she examined a small three-leaved plant, withered and dull.

"I don't think she knew." Bow replied.

"I've never seen anything like this. Even the very air just feels _wrong."_ Ferah added her own two cents.

"I guess living in the mountains would give you a sense for this sort of thing after a while." Bow guessed before he started looking around.

"Hey, where'd Adora go?" He asked before the three of them heard a pair of thumps behind them on the roots. They looked around to behold the sight of She Ra standing heroically atop the root, cart held above her head.

"Okay, full stop. Are you just going to stay as She Ra the _entire time_?" Glimmer asked, slightly exasperatedly.

"Well, I told queen Angella I would. Besides, people like me better as She Ra. Could Adora do _this_" She questioned before she started to lift the cart up and down like it was a light weight. Glimmer just groaned and pinched her brow. Ferah watched the display with interest, more out of the idea of getting a spar in with Adora when they got back to Brightmoon. Though, perhaps a display of combat prowess might help boost morale around here. Not like there would be any harm in it…

"Hey guys, what is that?" Bow asked, causing them to all look towards the horizon. They could see a large column of smoke rising into the air that immediately had everyone on edge. It was safe to assume that in a kingdom where nature was revered like it was in Plumeria, fires and smoke were big no-nos.

"I'm going with trouble." Ferah muttered darkly, her tail flicking back and forth as her fists unconsciously clenched.

"That must be the Horde camp." She Ra guessed before they were suddenly interrupted.

"You're here!"

The group all turned to see that the residents had taken notice of their arrival and were rushing over to meet them. At the front was a young woman with blonde hair, tanned skin and onyx eyes. She was dressed in a pink dress with a green shawl and had several pink flowers in her hair, as well as a tiara crafted from said flowers.

"Princess Perfuma! I'm commander Glimmer of…" Glimmer started, hand outstretched to shake the now identified princess Perfuma, only for Perfuma to merely point at Glimmer's hand and cause a bouquet of flowers to materialize out of midair, which got a bit of a jump out of Ferah before a flower crown materialized on Bow's head. Then she heard a _poof_ noise much closer to her, and Ferah realized she now had twin pairs of flower chains around her wrists. While Ferah was a little weirded out by it for a few moments, it was fair to assume that this was just a standard greeting from Perfuma, and Ferah couldn't disagree that it was quite the lovely greeting.

As Ferah turned to see what Adora/She Ra would be getting, she realized that no such flowers had materialized on her. Instead, Perfuma and the rest of the citizens of Plumeria were all staring at She Ra, a collective starstruck look in their eyes. To her credit, Adora was doing a good job of presenting herself as exceptionally heroic. She even had the confident smile down, though Ferah could tell she was still more than a little nervous. A nervousness that only became more intense, with a dash of confusion when the crowd started to gather.

"The Universe has heard our pleas and brought us the legendary She Ra to help us save our home!" Perfuma gushed.

"I'm even more glad that _I'm _not the one who found that sword now." Ferah murmured to Glimmer and Bow, the latter of which nodded. They'd literally just gotten there and now the acting monarch of the kingdom was immediately calling on Adora to save the kingdom, or assuming that she was just here to do that.

"I mean, I get she's a messianic figure an all, but maybe give her a few minutes to take it all in before you throw 'save our civilization' at her." Ferah continued, still keeping her voice low.

"Well, it's not like Adora didn't expect this. Kind of comes part and parcel of the whole 'She Ra' thing." Glimmer pointed out as she and Bow gave Adora their best encouraging smiles and a thumbs up. The best Ferah could muster was a sympathetic smile before she began talking with Bow under her breath.

"The Horde sets up a camp here and the plants start dying. I can't believe that's a coincidence." Ferah muttered as her tail continued to flick.

"I was thinking the same thing. Still, Angella ordered us to keep out of it, so long as Plumeria isn't aiding the alliance." Bow replied, his expression sour on that last note. However, it wasn't sour for very long as their attention was drawn back to Adora/She Ra, just in time to see the crowd converge on her. Of note were a child that couldn't be much older than three or four that was clinging to She Ra's right arm, while another woman was giving She Ra a massive hug. And there was one person who was… sniffing her hair? Why were they sniffing her hair?

"Oh, I would be really freaking out right about now…" Ferah muttered as a chill ran down her spine as she watched Adora begin to do just that as she tried to extricate herself from the crowd. She could already picture the kids going after her tail. Oh, First Ones how that would hurt…

Luckily, Adora managed to safely escape the crowd and return the baby to its mother before hurrying to join the group. Perfuma was already walking away, calling eagerly for them to follow her. Ferah hurried along and gave She Ra a sympathetic pat on the shoulders, strange as the spectacle would have been, given She Ra towered over all of them.

"Our people have lived her in tranquility for _thousands _of years. We're known for our beautiful flowers, our majestic trees…" Perfuma explained, though the words were somewhat contradicted by the fact that they were watching one of said trees, a very young one at that, wither and die before their very eyes.

"And this, is the Heart Blossom; the center of our kingdom, and the source of all my magical powers!" Perfuma finished explaining. Ferah breathed a little sigh of relief, which gave way to awe when she was able to behold the sheer size of the tree in question. It was gargantuan!

"Well at least this tree is fine. What's happened to everything else?" Ferah asked, getting an elbow from Glimmer.

"Tact!" Glimmer hissed out of the corner of her mouth, to which Ferah rolled her eyes while resisting the urge to smack Glimmer in the side with her tail. Though she wasn't quite above using said tail to tap on Glimmer's opposite shoulder, getting her to look over at She Ra, who didn't look the slightest bit guilty. Ferah managed to restrain a snort of laughter but couldn't quite keep a minimal smirk off her face. Luckily, Perfuma didn't seem to have noticed, since she was more preoccupied with the ground right about now.

"We're going through a little rough patch, but I'm sure that the universe will right itself soon." Perfuma said, with a smile that didn't look quite convincing. The way she was stroking her hair to the point of tugging on it wasn't exactly encouraging either.

"Everything is dead or dying." Glimmer pointed out, leading Ferah to take her opportunity for an elbow. Glimmer glared at her but opted not to reply. Practice what you preach, after all.

"Look, the blight hit right after the Horde arrived, we… we don't know why and nothing I do stops it." Perfuma explained, her sunny personality giving way to real fear and uncertainty that she must have been keeping bricked up behind the earlier sunniness.

"But don't dwell on the negative, look at the positive! The Heart Blossom is still healthy and now _the_ She Ra is here and now the celebration's about to begin!" Perfuma declared, the sunny façade immediately back. Needless to say, they were all caught off-guard to the point that they only really snapped out of it when Perfuma began to magic all sorts of flowery accessories onto She Ra.

"Celebration?" Ferah and Adora asked simultaneously before the latter was dragged off by Perfuma. Getting the sense that Adora could need rescuing before the night was out, Ferah broke into a jog in pursuit of the bubbly nature princess and her captive, with Bow and Glimmer hurrying after them.

It didn't take too long before they reached the aforementioned celebration, and while Ferah normally would have been enthusiastic about a festival of some kind (She'd loved the ones that the old village would throw for seasonal events), she couldn't help but think that throwing a celebration while the Horde was on your doorstep and your homeland was dying around you wasn't a terribly good idea. It was about this moment that Ferah had a small epiphany, that being her mother's use of the phrase 'burying your head in the sand'. Somehow it had eluded her all this time, but now it clicked.

"Okay, so what do we do now? Because I'm completely lost." Ferah asked Glimmer, who shrugged.

"Join the club. Let's just focus on keeping Adora from cracking and running off screaming." Glimmer replied.

"What are the odds on that?" Ferah asked as they watched She Ra get placed at a seat of honor and then had bowls of various fruits and such foisted on her. And… giving her kids? Why exactly were they giving her kids?

"Right now? Dwindling." Glimmer replied with a groan as she watched Adora trying desperately to… handle… the situation. It wasn't going very well.

"I'm so happy that after all these centuries of being gone you finally returned, and in our hour of greatest need?! Just like in the stories!" Ferah heard Perfuma exclaim, so she got a bit closer to listen in on some of these stories, picking a spot next to Bow.

"What stories?" Adora asked, sounding a bit concerned about them.

"The stories we've been telling for _thousands _of years! She Ra, the warrior who tamed the Beast of beast island with a single word!" Perfuma declared, using her magic to pull aside several branches to reveal a carving of a _very _familiar swordswoman facing down a beast. Ferah frowned at the story. There was embellished storytelling, then there was _this._

"That's nothing. What about the time She Ra defeated a squad of Horde soldiers on a flying horse? Or or or, the time she saved Thaymore from a _legion_ of Horde soldiers? Or the time she borrowed my toothbrush, and used it to defeat an _army _of Horde soldiers?" Bow exclaimed, using a stick to mime the supposed toothbrush story. This time, Ferah couldn't resist a groan and smacked him upside the head with her tail.

"Ah, Bow, that's not true…" Adora muttered, looking much more uncomfortable with the little ones clinging to her legs.

"You're right… It was…!" He started before Ferah smacked him again, harder this time.

"Jeez, how strong is that tail? I'm going to have a bump!" Bow exclaimed.

"Bow, I get that you're trying to help, but right now you really aren't." Ferah muttered out of the corner of her mouth. Bow rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. And also because of the pair of tail slaps.

"Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away." Bow apologized.

"To be honest, you probably weren't going to make things any worse. I can't help but feel these people are set up for disappointment no matter what." Ferah replied.

"What do you mean? They love Adora!" Bow replied.

"No, they love She Ra. She Ra who apparently could tame beasts with a single word and defeat entire armies single handed." Ferah pointed out as she watched more gifts and food get piled into Adora's arms, including a wind chime that Adora had to ask Glimmer the name of.

"We're so excited for you to heal our land and bring all the plants back to life. Will you be doing it before the Drem circle?" Perfuma asked Adora.

"Oh, here it comes…" Ferah muttered, her tail flicking back and forth in agitation.

"What do you mean? She could totally heal the land." Bow replied. Ferah frowned.

"I'm not saying she's incapable of it, but can she do it _now?_ I know I'm technically a latecomer on this, but last I checked, she's only had that sword for a few days at most. Do you really think she's got the whole thing figured out just like that?" Ferah asked. Bow's face fell a little bit.

"Couldn't you be a little more positive? Have a little faith?" Bow asked. Ferah sighed.

"Normally I would, but I don't like the attitude these people have. They've been having this problem for how long, with the Horde _clearly_ responsible, and they've done nothing to try and figure out what's wrong or get rid of the Horde. Now, they're putting _everything _on Adora to put things right? What if she hadn't shown up? What if she can't magically fix everything? I don't know, I guess it's just how I grew up. You wanted something done, you handled it yourself, especially since I was always weirdly strong. Waiting for the world to offer a magical fix-all just doesn't gel with me I guess." Ferah explained, though she did soften it a little, regarding their hosts.

"I guess that makes sense. Still, I believe Adora can do this. She's She Ra after all." Bow replied. Ferah frowned a bit as her tail curled. That sentiment was dangerously close to the problem at hand, at least in her eyes. However, she decided to push those thoughts aside and tune back into the conversation.

"…lus, I don't like the look of that smoke. The Horde is up to something big. Maybe we should investigate." Adora tried to reason. Unfortunately, that only seemed to put the Plumerians on the back foot.

"We?" Perfuma asked hesitantly before looking around before turning back to She Ra.

"This is my power." Perfuma said as she conjured a beautiful red flower from nothing. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long, withering after only a few moments.

"I grow plants. We're not… strong enough to go up against the Horde." Perfuma explained, sounding a little disheartened, only for Ferah to shoot her a questioning look. How would they know? As far as Ferah heard, they hadn't even tried so far! At least, Perfuma hadn't.

"All we want is to live peacefully in our ancestral home." Perfuma concluded. The people looked between their princess and She Ra, who looked more unsure than ever. And then the chanting started.

Ferah couldn't help but cringe in sympathy for Adora as the crowd started chanting She Ra's name.

"Oh, and this just keeps getting better…" Ferah muttered before she noticed that Adora had managed to beat a hasty retreat, along with Bow and Glimmer. Ferah hurried after them and found Adora pacing in the woods.

"I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what I'm doing…" Adora repeated over and over again.

"They can't _really _expect you to heal an entire forest right now, right?" Ferah asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Sounds like it." Glimmer replied.

"I can't heal a bruise, let alone Plumeria!" Adora continued, throwing her hands up in the air in stress.

"There's multiple stories that say She Ra has healing powers." Bow reminded her, though Ferah had the distinct sense that wasn't helping.

"They also say I fought the Mantisaur! I don't even know what that is!" Adora exclaimed.

"Wait, do you mean Manticore?" Ferah asked.

"Oh no. Mantisaur and Manticore are two completely different things." Glimmer informed her.

"Neither of which are going to help me heal a whole forest!" Adora cut in, her eyes bugged out with fear.

"What if you just concentrate really, _really _hard? That usually works when you need to transform, right?" Glimmer suggested.

"I don't think that's how the healing powers work." Ferah pointed out.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" Glimmer shot back.

"Not really, aside from trying to find the root cause of the sickness. I get the feeling that even if Adora did heal the land, she'd only be treating a symptom and not the cause." Ferah argued.

"Well, let's try telling that to the Plumerians. They'll understand, right?" Bow suggested. Ferah frowned and crossed her arms as her tail curled.

"Somehow, I doubt it. _The Legendary She Ra_ tried explaining that to them and they wouldn't budge from _heal the land! Heal the land!_" Ferah muttered as she crossed her arms and shot a soft glare back towards the village.

"Well, I guess I better try to heal it then." Adora resolved.

"If I really can heal things, then it shouldn't be that hard, right?" Adora muttered before she closer her eyes and started concentrating. A bright yellow glow began to emit from her as she raised her hand and thrust it forward. For a moment, Ferah thought she saw a rainbow pulse come from She Ra's hand. However, she was a little more distracted by the loud _crack _that followed, which drew everyone's attention to a section of tree that had been bluntly and violently parted with the rest of the tree.

"You know, that's kind of what happened with the training dummy, only with _way_ less splinters." Ferah commented.

"Not. Helping." Adora growled frustratedly before she took a deep breath and grabbed her sword.

"Let's try this again." Adora stated before the glow resumed. She held her sword up in front of her and tried again, only for something that was definitively 'not healing' happened. This time, it was a burst of blue energy erupting from the sword, causing a nearby boulder to explode. The boulder would have been Glimmer, had she not teleported out of harms way.

"Magic blast. Definitely not healing." Glimmer informed Adora, who took another deep breath, only for yet another mishap to occur in the form of another magic blast. However, this one instead struck a small lizard, which then proceeded to sprout rainbow feather wings and a horn, both of which looked suspiciously familiar…

"Wait, is _that _why the horse could fly?!" Ferah exclaimed, utterly stupefied by what had just happened. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the breaking point for Adora, who proceeded to do a side kick into a tree, knocking it and several other trees behind it over. The succession of impacts was progressively more cringe-inducing with each crash.

"Huh. Never tried doing that before…" Ferah muttered as she began examining the log that Adora had struck while Glimmer and Bow tried to console Adora as best they could.

"Don't worry about it, you'll figure it out soon." Bow encouraged, only for Adora to brush it off.

"Soon isn't good enough! The Horde is poisoning the land and the people expect me to fix it, but I can't! I thought I was better as She Ra. Turns out I'm no good no matter what form I'm in…" Adora moaned. At this, Ferah whirled around to deliver a 'how dare you' speech to Adora, only to be prematurely interrupted by a loud _thoom _in the distance, coming from the Horde camp.

"That can't be good." Ferah muttered as her tail began lashing about.

"She Ra, come quick!"

The group turned around to see Perfuma rushing towards them.

"Something absolutely terrible has happened!" Perfuma told them before turning around to run back to the village. The group followed behind, all the way to the Heart Blossom that Perfuma had shown them earlier. It quickly became apparent what the problem was. The large tree they'd visited earlier was withering; it's leaves having turned purple and falling from their branches to the ground. Worst of all was the pink gem having turned a dark purple and the black/green veins that were spreading around the trunk more and more by the second.

"The Heart Blossom is dying." Perfuma told them. IT was obvious how much those words terrified Perfuma and the rest of the villagers.

"Please, She Ra. Heal our land." Perfuma begged Adora, who took a deep breath and approached tree. Glimmer, Bow and Ferah offered their encouragement, but Ferah was still concerned about what would happen, should She Ra succeed.

Adora walked up to the tree and took a deep breath and placed her hand on the tree as a familiar yellow aura surrounded her. Unfortunately, after a few seconds it became apparent that nothing had changed, save Adora transforming back from She Ra to her normal body. The sudden swell of mutterings and whispers had Ferah on edge. Her tail wound around her waist tightly as she watched it unfold.

"Sorry. I don't know how to heal." Adora informed them sadly as she turned to face them.

"Who are you? And where's She-Ra?" One of the villagers asked. Adora took a deep breath and began

"My name is Adora. I was chosen to carry the sword of She-Ra, but... I haven't been doing this for very long, and I don't know exactly how it works yet." Adora told them. Ferah could feel the mood of the crowd shifting.

"She's just a girl!" One of the older residents shouted, much to Adora's dismay and Ferah's barely concealed disdain.

"I never meant to deceive you. I am She-Ra, I'm just not the same She-Ra." Adora assured them, though it did little good. Ferah clenched her fists and bit her tongue. If she opened her mouth now, she was going to say and/or do something stupid.

"Then you can't save us?" Perfuma asked fearfully before another loud _THOOM_ echoed through the air, coming from the Horde camp.

"Wait! There might be another way. I know the Horde. I think they're using one of their machines to poison your land. If we wanna save your home, we have to stop them!" Adora told them, but Ferah could see it wasn't working. The crowd had completely turned against Adora.

"You're not She-Ra from the stories! You were supposed to save us!" One of the citizens shouted, with others chiming in with their own cries of fear and anger. Ferah grit her teeth. Her nails were digging into her palms and her knuckles were turning white. They'd come _this _far to help them, Adora tried her best to solve the problem the way Plumeria wanted it solved and _this _was how they treated her?!

"It will be all right, I promise. We will rebuild. We have to believe that the universe will repay the Horde for their evil deeds eventually." Perfuma tried to placate their people, but it fell on deaf ears once a loud _BOOM_ echoed throughout the village. There were cries of fear as people desperately looked around, trying to find the source of the noise, though it didn't take long to find. All eyes were on Ferah as a transparent silver aura burned around her as she glared furiously at the villagers.

"I can't believe this." She muttered as her tail hung still; unnaturally so.

"You refuse to take any action to save the forest if it involves the Horde, you refuse to allow _us_ to aid you in trying to find the root cause of the problem, and when the _only _solution you will accept doesn't work out, not only do you decide to turn tail and run, but you complain and belittle the one you begged and begged to do something about your problem?!" Ferah roared, her voice carrying much further than one would have expected. However, she wasn't done.

"The universe isn't going to protect you from the Horde! It isn't going to magically stop the forest from dying! You have options! You can do _something! _But instead, you waited for someone or something else to solve this catastrophe _for you! _At least Adora _tried_! She at least has that much claim! You all just gave up the moment your supposed magic solution for everything turned out to not be as all-powerful as you built up!" Ferah continued before the aura suddenly vanished and she just exhaled angrily before turning to march off into the forest.

"Wait, where are you going?" Glimmer demanded, not quite as shellshocked as everyone else was by Ferah's outburst.

"I need to cool off." Ferah replied through clenched teeth as her tail lashed about as she stalked into the undergrowth. After a while she reached a clearing before she grabbed her face with both hands and let out a series of unintelligible angry noises into her palms before she snapped and sent a charge of energy down her leg before delivering a straight kick to a nearby boulder, obliterating it!

"Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" Ferah ranted to herself before she slammed her head against a tree.

"You just couldn't keep your temper in check, could you?! Couldn't have _tried _to bite your tongue a bit! Couldn't have at least tried to be a little gentler with them. _Noooo, _you just HAD to go and call them out like that! Great job, idiot! GREAT JOB!" She continued to rant before she turned around and sank to the ground against the tree.

"Why do I keep making a fool out of myself like this?" She moaned into her hands before she heard rustling in the bushes not too far away. Immediately, Ferah was on her feet and in her combat stance before she saw it was just Bow, Glimmer and Adora emerging from the foliage.

"Hey… look, I'm sorry I lost my temper back there. I just…" Ferah started to say before Glimmer held up her hand.

"Ap upup, save it. We'll talk about that afterwards. For now, we're going to go figure out what the Horde is doing to the land and try to stop it. You coming with?" Glimmer asked her. Ferah's eyes went wide before turning serious.

"Absolutely." She replied as she cracked her knuckles for effect.

* * *

**And that's where we're leaving it for now! So, I didn't expect this chapter to be so long, so we're cutting it in half. **

**Creativity: Also, Happy New Year everyone!**

**Author: Yes, that. Also that. **

**So, a little bit of information regarding the New Year. Come January first, 2020, I will be resuming work on my primary project called Before: Kingdom Hearts. Naturally, this will slow down uploads for EVERYTHING, but this project especially. I got this project, Limit Breaker, Venom: Resurgence and Star Wars: Twilight Blade all to work on, two of which are important for something else I've been working on in the background. And on top of ALL of that, College.**

**So yeah, time's not gonna be terrible easy to come by. Oh, also, and this is pretty exciting, but it's looking really likely that I'll be getting a bird in the future! **

**A wish of mine for quite a number of years now, it might **_**finally **_**be coming true. For those curious, I plan to get a cockatiel should all go well. Not sure of a name yet, but I'm leaning towards Phoenix right now.**

**Creativity: And with that, we should probably sign off.**

**Author: Good idea. It's kind of cool that we were able to get a chapter for Limit Breaker out for Christmas day and one out for New Years Eve. Hopefully I'll have many more for you in the year to come!**

**Until next time, thank you for reading, please review and we'll see you next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Good day to you, my lovely people! Welcome to chapter 8 of Fist of the Sky! However, before we get to the chapter proper, there's something I want to address. Creativity?**

**Creativity: Yes, boss?**

**Author: I believe some acknowledgements are in order.**

**Creativity: Oh, right! That! Gimme a sec… where is it…? It was right here just a minute ago! Ah, here we are! So, let's all give a round of applause to one WantedHuntsman, who left some of the best constructive criticism that we've seen on our stories!**

**Author: Indeed! And as thanks, we are going to address his review of chapter 7 right here! So, let us begin:**

**While I do agree that this particular version is Ferah's story, I don't want to completely discount the other characters. Besides, Ferah (and I for that matter) is still finding her feet in this story, so the beginning might be a bit 'original plot' heavy. As for the second part, that's a symptom of me wanting to keep to a certain proximity of the original story and feeling a certain rush to get to the parts envisioned (e.g. Ferah finally losing it and chewing out Plumeria) and I take full responsibility for that second part. In future, I'll probably go back and switch up the dialogue, even if it'll probably boil down to the same stuff. **

**Creativity: Thanks for setting us straight on that.**

**Author: Yes, many thanks. Before we go any further though, let's get our new tradition out of the way; our story recommendation!**

**We've opted to read stories and give our recommendations for reading options. However, since last I checked, this is the only She Ra DBZ crossover, I'll be recommending from the normal She Ra stories. This chapter's recommendation is 'The Invisible Line' by RustyRiley; It takes place post season 4 and so far contains stress, manipulation and has me eagerly anticipating the next chapter.**

**Now then, where did we leave off? Oh, yes!**

**After failing to heal the Heart Blossom of Plumeria and Ferah's loss of temper, the best friend squad has rallied and intends to take on the Horde camp to put an end to their operations in Plumeria. What will happen next? Find out during chapter 8 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

"So, we're all clear on the plan?" Adora asked. Bow and Glimmer nodded while Ferah groaned.

"Yes, we're clear about the plan, Adora. We've been clear on it the last three times we went through it." Ferah answered through gritted teeth.

"Well, let's add a fourth time to it, just to be on the safe side." Glimmer suggested, drawing a furious glare from Ferah.

"Alright. Step one, steal four Horde uniforms so we can sneak into the camp under the guise of shift change. Step two, find the cause of Plumeria's dying plants and destroy it. Step three, try to escape or find some way to cause the Horde to retreat." Adora ran through again with military precision as they snuck their way around the border of the dying jungle, searching for a patrol they could steal the uniforms from.

"Why did you do that to me? Why?" Ferah hissed at Glimmer, who didn't even turn around.

"Because your attitude is getting real irritating." Glimmer replied matter-of-factly. Ferah glared at Glimmer.

"Am I going to have to speak to your mother regarding cruel or unusual punishment? Because cruel and unusual punishment doesn't sound like an 'alliance' thing." Ferah shot back. Glimmer looked back with a smug look.

"I'm not sure where you would've gotten that idea. The General's got some pretty interesting ideas for guards who draw her ire. Maybe she could make some recommendations to my mom." Glimmer countered with that same look. Ferah opened her mouth to respond, but Glimmer kept going.

"And hopefully whatever they decide to punish you with will curb this attitude you've copped." Glimmer added, causing Ferah to glance away, still a bit incensed but it drained away slowly and her tail drooped.

"Sorry about that. Guess I'm still mad at myself for losing it in front of Perfuma and the village." Ferah apologized again. Glimmer held up a finger at Ferah.

"I said we'd talk about that later. Besides, it wasn't like we weren't all thinking it." Glimmer replied with a hint of a grin. However, Adora's hand suddenly shooting up told them to be quiet and still. She then motioned forward, pointing out an approaching patrol of four Horde soldiers.

"Alright, let's do this. Me and Ferah will knock them out, then we steal the uniforms." Adora whispered to them. She and Ferah crept ahead until Adora was ahead of the patrol while Ferah was behind. On Adora's signal, Ferah zipped forward and delivered twin neck chops to the two rear soldiers, causing them to crumple to the ground without so much as a gasp. However, the armor made enough noise for the two soldiers in front to take notice. However, when they spun around to see what was happening, Adora leapt out of hiding and pulled the shorter one into a chokehold, distracting the final soldier long enough for Ferah to knock them out with a final neck chop. With the guards subdued, they stripped them of their armor and left them unconscious on the outskirts of the jungle while they retreated further in and busied themselves with climbing into their disguises. Soon everyone was ready, though with a few gripes. Well, mainly one, and from a single source.

"Couldn't we have found someone a little bigger? The helmet and the chest plate are too tight." Ferah complained quietly as they made their way to the Horde camp entrance.

"Well, that was the largest they had and we're on a time crunch, so you'll just have to deal. It won't take long." Glimmer hissed back.

"You don't have armor that you can feel your ribs denting! Oh, and you don't have a tail that you had to stuff into this junk! Do you have any idea how sensitive this thing is? It's gonna be chaffing by the time I get out of this tin can!" Ferah continued, only for Glimmer to smack her upside the helmet.

"Stow the complaints, we're almost there! And try not to give away how uncomfortable you are in the armor. If they catch on, we're gonna be in _real _deep trouble!" Glimmer hissed again. Ferah rolled her eyes under the helmet but complied with Glimmer's orders. She was right about things ending badly if they got caught.

"Alright, how far away are we?" Ferah asked Adora.

"We're about at the entrance, so now we head in for the shift change. Get ready." Adora ordered. They all got ready as Adora began to count down.

"Three… two… one… go!" Adora hissed as they strode into the camp like they were supposed to be there. They immediately went over to the building that Adora had singled out as most likely to be housing whatever was poisoning the Heart Blossom, with Ferah doing the absolute upmost best she could muster to not fidget or walk funny with the way her tail was scrunched up in her armor. It was damn near unbearable.

"_I hate this armor, I hate it, I hate it, ihateitihateitihateit…" _Ferah ranted to herself in her mind as she walked perfectly normally. As they were walking though, she noticed something else that had her mildly infuriated. Specifically, it was a lizard man, who just so happened to be wearing armor that was designed to accommodate his tail.

"_Oh, come on! _He _gets armor that doesn't crush his tail and cause it to chafe and cramp!? Why couldn't we have knocked out him?!" _Ferah screamed in her head. The cosmic injustice however was soon distracted from as they were now arriving in front of the building that Adora had guessed to contain the source of Plumeria's woes.

"Shift change!" Adora announced to the guards, who immediately looked relieved.

"Finally!" One exclaimed.

"I know, right? I swear, these guard shifts get longer every single time!" The other complained as they walked off. Once they were out of sight, the group of four slipped inside the building, and what a sight they suddenly beheld.

Situated before them was a massive machine with several large tubes that were pumping some sort of milky green liquid into the ground. Ferah hissed angrily when she saw it. All of them removed their helmets as they looked at the terrible machine.

"The Horde really is poisoning the land." Glimmer murmured in a horrified voice.

"Well, now we know what to break." Ferah snarled as she cracked her knuckles.

"Hey!"

All of them jumped and spun around to see a Horde soldier standing behind them, weapon leveled at their faces, though it was currently uncharged.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded. Ferah immediately glanced to Adora, who took the question in stride.

"Uh, I believe the question is what are _you _doing here? _We _have security clearance. Password: 5-echo-niner." Adora replied in a commanding, and slightly condescending tone. Perfect for the situation they were in.

"We haven't used that password in months…" The Horde soldier muttered before slamming her hand on a button on the wall. Alarms immediately started blaring. The soldier's weapon began charging, but Ferah lunged forward, hitting the Horde soldier straight across the cheek with a straight right punch that sent her spinning to the ground, completely out cold.

"Wow, nice punch!" Bow complimented.

"Thanks, but not the time!" Ferah replied, slightly hysterically.

"Right. Adora, what do we do?" Bow asked hurriedly. They could hear the thundering of dozens of armored boots running their way.

"Run!" Adora shouted before they all bolted out the front door, making a run for the entrance. Unfortunately, there were already Horde soldiers with charged weapons in their way. They made ran to the left and leapt behind cover, dodging the blasts from their weapons.

"Why are we running?! We need to take out that machine!" Ferah shouted over the din of the shouting soldiers.

"I'd rather live to take another shot at it, but that's just me!" Adora replied as she lobbed a few pieces of junk at the Horde soldiers, knocking a couple of them down before they made another run for it, ducking behind new cover.

"How many of those guys can we handle?!" Adora asked as she frantically looked for a way out.

"For me? Between one and… _hah_… zero." Bow replied between gasps for breath.

"I'll take all of them! Just… ah… give me a minute!" Glimmer responded. Ferah wasn't having any of it.

"Let me handle the brunt of it! As soon as I get out of this walking cage!" Ferah shouted before letting out a roar as a silver aura erupted around her, causing the armor to burst from her body, leaving her in her travel clothes. Her tail wriggled as soon as the air touched it.

"Oh, man does it feel good to be out of that thing! My tail must have like… three cramps!" Ferah exclaimed before she took up her fighting stance. Soon enough though, they were surrounded on all sides by Horde soldiers. Glimmer summoned her magic, Bow started glancing about nervously while Adora clenched her fists. Ferah frowned as she looked around. She needed to get the attention of the Horde soldiers and keep it if the others were gonna stand a chance.

Seeing an opening, Ferah suddenly shot forward, delivering a straight punch that sent one of the soldiers flying backwards into the wall. However, she was already on the move, delivering punches, kicks, chops, elbows and knees to any Horde soldier within range, dancing between them and striking as she went. Immediately, weapons were firing as they tried to home in on her, giving Adora, Bow and Glimmer an opening to strike themselves. Adora immediately lashed out with her fists and grabbed one of the soldiers by the arm and twisted them around before kicking them into another soldier. Bow did his best punch, but he was clearly better suited to archery. Not that there was a problem for long, since he managed to find one of the Horde's stun weapons and began using that to take down Horde soldiers.

Glimmer had immediately seized the opportunity and was launching bursts of magic at the enemy, focusing in on ones that were attacking Ferah from a distance since Ferah had no options for range (aside from throwing one Horde soldier at another) and despite the immense strength Ferah possessed that the others were now seeing in practice, it was clear she wasn't invincible. She'd knocked down and knocked out more than a few of the guards, but whatever that boost she was getting from that aura, it wasn't rendering her invincible. She'd taken more than a few shots and the results showed. She was slower, wincing if she moved in a specific way.

"We're not gonna be able to hold out much longer!" Glimmer called out. Ferah snarled as she bent out of the way of a bunch before she hooked her arm around the offending appendage and socked its owner in the face before booting them out of the way. Glimmer was right. They didn't have the room to keep this up. She needed to clear some room to regroup with the others.

"GyaaAHH!" Ferah shouted before pushed her strength even higher and leapt into the air, funneling that energy into her right arm as she began to descend towards the ground! The moment her fist came into contact with the ground, the earth began to shake, and a rippling pulse rushed outward from the strike, sending the Horde soldiers tumbling! Ferah took this opportunity to run back to the group.

"Not to sound ungrateful, considering all the Horde butt you've already kicked, but can you kick more butt?!" Glimmer asked as Ferah took up her standard battle stance.

"Normally yes, but I underestimated how much those things would hurt, and I've overused my boost ability as it is, trying to cut back on the damage I take from those baton things! We're gonna need a tactical retreat!" Ferah called back.

"Tactical retreat to where?! We've got our backs against the wall, you and Glimmer are already running out of steam and I can't exactly bust out my own magic trick without cover!" Adora responded slightly hysterically as her eyes darted about. The soldiers were all approaching slowly, weapons charged and ready to fire.

"Give me a sec!" Ferah shouted back before she funneled more energy into her left arm and swung it backwards against the building, knocking a hole in it for them to retreat through. Ferah kicked down the next wall and they leapt through it and made another run for it. Unfortunately, they didn't get very far before they found themselves surrounded once again.

"Oh, come on!" Ferah complained loudly before she bent out of the way of an attempt to bash her head in with a melee weapon of some kind spiked bludgeon before knocking away the offending party with her elbow. Another strike aimed at her head, but this time she avoided it with a backbend, dropping to dirt and kicking upward with both legs before rolling backwards and onto her feet.

"You're doing better now that you're actually being careful!" Glimmer commented.

"Oh, give me a break! This is literally my second real fight ever and my first one ended by magic intervention before it even really started!" Ferah shot back as she dodged another strike and retaliate with a side kick.

"So, I'm more battlefield experienced than you? Oh, I am totally gonna lord this over you if we make it out of this!" Glimmer responded as she blasted another soldier with her magic.

"When! When we get out of this! And didn't the extent of your battle strategy during the meeting only go so far as 'show up, kick butt and leave'?" Adora asked as she threw a piece of light machinery at another soldier.

"I didn't have time to prepare a better plan, okay?!" Glimmer argued back as she blasted a soldier that was trying to sneak up on Bow.

"I don't know, even when you know about an attack, you don't really think up much strategy beyond 'meet them head-on'." Bow pointed out as he blasted another Horde soldier with their own weapon.

"Traitor!" Glimmer shouted before she got clipped by another blast and dropped to her knees. Ferah noticed and immediately rushed to Glimmer's aid, though she soon found herself on the receiving end of several blasts from the Horde's weapons and was on her knees too, grimacing in pain as she glared out of one eye since the other one was shut from the pain.

"Okay, we got our princess and our brute down! Any ideas?" Bow asked desperately. If the situation wasn't so dire, Ferah probably would have given Bow a piece of her mind for being referred to as a 'brute', but the aforementioned situation was getting in the way of that somewhat.

"Just give me a few seconds. I'll be ready to take em…" Ferah ground out as she got to her feet and powered up again. Unfortunately, it seemed that the bruises and very mild burns were taking umbrage with that action and protested, and she fell back to one knee.

"Alright, let's tag em and ship em back to the Fright Zone!" One of them shouted as they began closing in. Glimmer managed to summon her magic and Ferah forced herself to her feet and took up her standard combat stance, though she opted against powering up this time. She could manage without it.

However, just as the Horde soldiers began to close in, the ground started to rumble and shake.

"Uh, Ferah? Is that you?" Adora asked.

"Not that I'm aware of, no." Ferah replied as her tail began flicking in nervousness. Suddenly, much to everyone's surprise, green vines began to creep over the wall before they shoved a large section of it down, allowing a tidal wave of the green vines to rush into the Horde camp! However, what was most surprising (from a certain point of view) was Princess Perfuma, stood tall atop the vines as the rest of Plumeria's citizens (sans the children of course) rushed into the Horde camp, armed with… large leaves, rugs and… wait, was that pottery?! Why were they fighting with pottery?!

Well, it didn't matter much to Ferah. They were actually doing a decent job of taking on the Horde, likely due to the element of surprise and Perfuma's plant wave being not only remarkably destructive, but incredibly distracting.

"I always said that the universe would pay the Horde back for their crimes against Etheria, and I say that day is today!" Perfuma declared from atop the plant wave. Ferah began grinning like a madman before she spun the nearest Horde soldier around and socked them in the face before she let out a battle cry of her own and leapt atop the plant wave, running along it before she leapt into the air and descended on an unsuspecting soldier to introduce them to the ball of her right foot, knocking them to the ground and unconscious.

"I've never felt so alive!" Perfuma announced gleefully as she hurtled by on her plant wave, steamrolling over a few soldiers. Ferah almost felt a little sorry for them for how outclassed they were at this point.

And then things got even better when a burst of yellow light from an abandoned section of the camp shone forth and She Ra appeared in all her heroic glory, effortlessly ploughing through the soldiers as she made a beeline for the poisoning machine. As much as Ferah wanted to contribute to that little endeavour, she knew she was better off out here, knocking out the guards.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ferah could see Glimmer messing with one of the Horde soldiers, teleporting around him and causing him to accidentally hit his fellow troops before she finally knocked him out with a magic burst to the face. Then she noticed another soldier rushing towards Glimmer from behind.

Not having any of that, Ferah took off at a run and jumped forward, clearing the distance between herself and Glimmer in a matter of moments, just in time to deliver a straight right kick to the jaw of Glimmer's would-be attacker.

"Thanks for the sa… Look out!" Glimmer shouted before launching a magic blast at a soldier that had been aiming their weapon at Ferah from behind.

"Nice shot!" Ferah complimented before she went after a few soldiers that were clumsily attempting to climb atop Perfuma's plant wave and started putting a stop to it through a wide assortment of means. Grabbing and tossing, sucker punching, kicking, using other soldiers to beat them off and a few others. Eventually there was a loud boom and suddenly the ground was awash with a soft, bluish green light. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened.

By this point, Perfuma had dismounted her plant wave and it seemed that whatever She Ra had done to the machine was giving Perfuma a boost of her own. Ferah watched in awe as Perfuma sent a wave of plant life travelling through the poisonous veins that snaked across the ground, erasing them from existence and restoring the Heart Blossom in just a matter of seconds. Ferah was actually taken aback by the display of magic. And that wasn't even the end of it. Immediately, nature began reclaiming the Horde base and very familiar flower chains were materializing around the Horde soldiers as they ran away. Ferah wasn't sure if that was an accident or intentional on Perfuma's part. And if it was the later, Ferah couldn't help but wonder if it was a final insult, or just a force of habit.

She Ra emerged from the building, a victorious grin on her face. Perfuma immediately rushed over after she finished waving goodbye to the fleeing Horde soldiers (seriously?!) and wrapped She Ra in a bone-crushing hug. Or rather, it would have been bone-crushing if it hadn't been She Ra she was hugging.

"I can't believe it! We did it! We were able to run the Horde off!" Perfuma exclaimed with glee, practically hopping in place. All four members of the group were smiling as the citizens of Plumeria gathered.

"Thank you so much! Without your bravery, we would never have been inspired to stand up to the Horde ourselves." Perfuma thanked them profusely. Seeing no better opportunity, Ferah stepped forward and looked Perfuma in the eye before lowering her head.

"Princess Perfuma, I'm sorry for my outburst earlier. It was out of line and I can't apologize enough for it." Ferah apologized. Perfuma was slightly taken aback, but she waved Ferah down with a gentle smile.

"Oh, the apology wasn't necessary. After all, it wasn't like you were wrong." Perfuma replied in a slightly quiet voice.

"Still, I shouldn't have blown up like that. It was poor form on my part, and it wasn't fair when you were in the middle of a crisis." Ferah continued to apologize only for Glimmer to grab her shoulder and give her a look that said 'stop it, you're fine' before turning to Perfuma.

"Princess Perfuma, I would like to formally invite you to join the Princess Alliance. If we want to save Etheria, we all need to stand together against the Horde." Glimmer announced to Perfuma, who looked equal parts confirmed and skeptical.

"I'm not sure... The last alliance failed horribly, didn't it?" She pointed out. Ferah just held up her hands and gestured around her.

"And look at what all of us accomplished here together." Ferah argued back. Perfuma stroked her chin thoughtfully as she considered.

"Besides, that was our parents who screwed up. We have a chance to do it better this time! Together, all of the princesses can stop the Horde and save Etheria!" Glimmer continued to press. Perfuma still looked to be on the fence before she posed a question.

"Can I hit more people with flowers?" She asked. It took every ounce of Ferah's remaining willpower to not snort with laughter.

"Yes. Yes, you absolutely can." Glimmer replied with a confident smirk on her face. How she was able to say that with a straight face was beyond Ferah at the moment.

"I mean, I personally prefer to hit them the old fashioned way, but you do you." Ferah lightly jabbed, to which Glimmer gave her a punch in the shoulder. Ferah wanted to respond with an elbow to the ribs, but she opted not to since she wasn't sure how much control she was exerting and didn't want to send Glimmer to the ground, Horde armor or no.

"Alright, I'm in." Perfuma decided, shaking hands with Glimmer.

"Alright, that's fantastic. Now, can we get back to the village? I'm still feeling a bit sore from all those blasts. Kinda reminds me of my first meditation session under the waterfall." Ferah muttered. Perfuma's eyes lit up.

"You meditate?! I love meditating!" Perfuma exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, we didn't get around to the rest of the introductions since you guys were all distracted with She Ra. Ferah's a martial artist. Also, she's kind of scarily strong." Bow told Perfuma, who once again was a little bit preoccupied, and had been since the mention of meditation, though she at least snapped out of it this time.

"Sorry, I kind of fuzzed out when you mentioned meditation." Perfuma admitted, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Well, we can talk all about meditation when we get back to the village. I should be less sore by then. I heal fast." Ferah muttered as the group began the long trek back to the village. It was going to be a long discussion, Ferah could tell. However, she had a feeling that this one was going to be a more pleasant one than she'd witnessed or partaken in since arriving in Plumeria.

* * *

Shadow Weaver was in a bad mood. To many within the Fright Zone, that was merely her default setting and one could be forgiven for that assumption, as it was very close to the truth. However, this was a very special occasion. She'd just left her quarters post a very pointed conversation with Force Captain Catra regarding an individual who should have been wearing the Force Captain badge instead of the insufferable furball, but she still had one other _issue _to deal with, regarding a new factor in the ongoing war for Etheria. A factor that concerned one of Hordak's most prized operatives, considering he was supposed to have taken care of that factor a year and a half ago. However, it seemed that his job had been left unfinished, and while he was still technically fit for active duty, he was widely considered to have had a few screws knocked loose in a timeframe that lined up with when the factor was supposedly taken care of.

The dark sorceress was not looking forward to dealing with Hordak's famed Bloody Fist, but she knew that Hordak would be breathing down her neck if he learned how she learned of this little factor. Thus, the only solution was to deal with it quietly. Besides, the so called Bloody Fist would probably prefer to be informed of the situation by Shadow Weaver instead of Hordak, who would likely do so in the middle of a public humiliation, potentially followed by a torture session to ensure that the error was not repeated.

Soon enough, Shadow Weaver reached the personal training grounds of the Bloody Fist and entered the access code before stepping inside. Training against three large and very dangerous Horde robots was a man dressed in baggy black pants and sandals, held up with blood-red rope. He wore no shirt instead having a long, thick scarf wrapped around his neck that hung down over his chest and shoulders.

"Veran. Still in top form, I see." Shadow Weaver greeted as the machines returned to their resting states. The man, identified as Veran, turned and gazed lazily at Shadow Weaver.

"Sorceress. What brings you from your chambers to speak to this lowly warrior?" Veran greeted in turn, his voice thick with condescension. Shadow Weaver ignored the bait, knowing that Veran's lust for battle and blood was best kept aimed at the rest of Etheria and not squandered on in-fighting.

"I received a scouting report and a few video clips from a now former Horde camp situated near Plumeria." Shadow Weaver began, only for Veran to snort.

"I told Hordak he should have just let me go and clear out those weaklings. They don't have anything resembling a standing army and I can handle a princess on my own. Instead, he insists on using his toys and machines." Veran complained. Shadow Weaver would have warned him against speaking out against Hordak that way, but she couldn't care less about Veran's ultimate fate. His obsession with battle and death would be the end of him one day, and Shadow Weaver just hoped she had an opportunity to laugh at him to his face before he was swept away in death's cold embrace.

"Be that as it may, the footage I found may be of some interest to you." Shadow Weaver continued before levitating up a screen for him to look at. It was looping footage of an adolescent who was wearing a blue sleeveless shirt cut to show her midriff with a sleeveless light-blue tunic that was open at the front, with two long strips of midnight-blue cloth to wrap around her arms, pants were baggier and also light-blue, with black boots and a blue sash. However, what stuck out the most was the long, brown tail that waved about in the air as she decimated waves of soldiers with her bare hands.

Veran watched the screen disinterestedly until he saw the martial arts employed, the ease of the practiced movements, and especially the silvery aura. Shadow Weaver couldn't tell if Veran was giddy beyond belief, or so furious that she should consider beating a hasty retreat before he lashed out. And then, he started to laugh.

It started out as mild giggles before building to a chuckle, then finally he was full own howling.

"So THAT'S why she was so eager to throw her life away! She had an apprentice! I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner!" Veran cackled. Now Shadow Weaver truly was questioning the man's sanity.

"Well, I understand now why you brought this to me, but I can't help but wonder why I'm hearing this from you, and not Lord Hordak. I assume that you haven't told him yet. _And,_ from that I can surmise that you are going against his direct orders to continue hunting down your… _protégé…_ Am I correct?" Veran assessed. Shadow Weaver was grinding her teeth behind her mask, and she knew that Veran could tell.

"Are you going to help me with this or not?" the sorceress asked. Veran grinned.

"Oh, I'm more than willing to help clean up this mess, since you've roped me into it by proxy. However, I am going to request a favor from you." Veran replied. Shadow Weaver frowned.

"I am not going to assist you in hunting down that fabled _beast _you've become obsessed with." Shadow Weaver told him flatly. Veran rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I don't want your help with that, though I haven't given up on that ambition. No, I want to speak to you regarding a potential endorsement of that taskforce idea I suggested some time ago." Veran corrected. Shadow Weaver's frown deepened to a scowl.

"And I told you before, we can't spare the cadets considering the last time you handled training. It's not good for morale if whole squads are killed during a single training exercise." Shadow Weaver growled at him. Veran turned around and began walking back to the center of the room.

"Then I suppose you are on your own to deal with this apprentice, the rumors of the returned She Ra, _and _Hordak's fury at you going behind his back. You know how quickly whispers waft through the air to the wrong ears." Veran replied light-heartedly. Shadow Weaver sucked her teeth at Veran's flippancy and decided to approach this a little more diplomatically.

"If you can guarantee me that you can establish this taskforce without _any _of them dying during training, I will be more than happy to endorse your taskforce." Shadow Weaver began before deciding to amend that statement.

"Actually, I'd say alive and still fit for active duty. Anything that goes on in the interim is none of my concern." Shadow Weaver decided. Veran eyed her a bit before he huffed.

"I would have assumed that one as knowledgeable as yourself would know that there are no guarantees in this world, but I give my word that I will do everything within my power to ensure that any cadets left in my charge survive to the end of training and can continue to fight." Veran agreed, though he was clearly unhappy about it.

"Excellent. Make amendments to the documents you brought before me originally regarding the mortality rate and training intensity and I'll prepare them for presentation to Lord Hordak." Shadow Weaver instructed Veran, who broke out in a slightly unhinged grin.

"I believe we have a deal." Veran all but whispered as Shadow Weaver exited the training hall. She still couldn't help but feel the deal she'd made was Faustian in nature, but she didn't care. Besides, if this worked, the Horde would have another weapon at its disposal; one potentially able to match a princess in battle.

* * *

**And that's the end of chapter 8! Man, this one was actually a blast to write, especially the ending bit.**

**Creativity: I think this is the first time we've ever cut from the Ferah or Charra's perspective. **

**Author: Yeah, I think you're right. Funny how that works out.**

**Anyway, Veran has re-entered the picture for the first time since chapter 4, we've concluded the Plumeria episode, we've got the possibility of Ferah and Perfuma becoming 'meditation buddies' and a new sinister plot brewing in the background… **

**Creativity: Anything left to add?**

**Author: Not really, actually. I think we'll bring this to a close for now. **

**So, I hope you all enjoyed, please review and we'll see you next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Greetings all! Welcome to chapter 9 of Fist of the Sky! It's been a hot minute since we sat down to work on this one, but we've gotten quite a bit done since we finished chapter 8! **

**Creativity: Yeah, no kidding! We got another chapter of Limit Breaker out, one for Twilight Blade, I think one for Resurgence, and we've gotten two chapters of Before: KH done as well!**

**Author: Yeah, we have indeed been busy. As a bonus, we've been able to think up more than a few ideas for what shape chapter 9 will take!**

**Now then, before we get to the chapter proper, let's give our story recommendation for chapter 9: Unbroken by WingedPegasus. The premise is Adora and Catra trapped in a gorge with barely any supplies, no aid and the Sword of Protection damaged. Need I say anything else.**

**Well, let's not keep you all waiting any longer! We now proudly present chapter 9 of Fist of the Sky!**

* * *

"… _Project… discovered… Co ..er…"_

"… _Noth… pa…nt… deliv…"_

"… _Tradition… conquer…"_

"… _Depl… Wild Sp…"_

"_No target is out of reach so long as you still draw breath. Remember, the reach of your fist is not the limit of your range."_

* * *

Ferah suddenly jolted awake, gasping for breath. She was sweating a bit, but not like from a particularly bad nightmare. However, she was still feeling shaky.

Slowly getting to her feet, she slowly walked across the room to where she'd left a glass of water on her desk and took a sip before she returned to her bed and took a deep breath while seating herself on the edge of her mattress.

This wasn't the first time she'd had a dream like this. Discounting the _episode _she'd had when she'd first met Razz and she called Ferah by another name, she'd had a dream like this during the night they'd spent in Plumeria after they'd destroyed the land-killing machine. It was always the same; a mix of human and unsettlingly _alien _voices that were distorted and difficult to make out. However, they were speaking in the same tone. It was cold and clinical, devoid of empathy for her. She somehow knew, instinctively, that _she _was the topic of discussion in these bits and pieces, but she could not for the life of her remember where she'd have heard something like this.

Then there was the _other _voice. That one had only shown up today and it felt different. It felt like it was _her _speaking, but at the same time, not. It certainly wasn't her voice. It was male for one. It was commanding and encouraging, kind of like how Charra had been when she was in 'teacher mode'. However, it felt less personal than Charra's tone.

Ferah shook her head. She was too tired to think about this stuff now. Despite the jolt awake earlier, her brain and body were already commanding her to return to the warm, fluffy embrace of the pillow and blankets and she couldn't muster the strength to resist their siren call. Besides, she had something she was looking forward to tomorrow, and she wanted to be well rested for it.

* * *

"You want to do what?"

"Spar! You know, fight each other for self improvement and, you know, fun?"

"I know what sparring is, but why do you want to fight me?"

"Uh, you're strong and you've obviously got fighting skills! Why _wouldn't _I wanna fight you?"

Glimmer and Bow watched the conversation between Adora and Ferah with rapt interest as they silently munched on breakfast. When Ferah had sprung that question in the middle of breakfast, Adora nearly choked on the bacon she'd been attacking at the time.

Glimmer and Bow weren't the only observers of this conversation either, though the other one was a lot more subtle in their interest. Queen Angella was subtly glancing the way of the two powerhouses. However, she often averted her gaze so as to not be caught staring. Well, that was one reason. The other was to reduce the nausea that began creeping into her gut when she saw the ungodly amounts of food that Ferah was somehow able to fit in her stomach.

"_There isn't enough room within the whole of the human body to accommodate that much food, let alone the stomach." _Angella thought, shuddering as she recalled mere minutes ago, when she first laid witness to the great massacre of breakfast by the dread beast Ferah.

"Come on, don't tell me you haven't been thinking about it! My powered up versus you as She Ra! It'd be epic!" Ferah exclaimed. Adora glanced away, looking a little embarrassed.

"I… might have considered it…" She reluctantly admitted. Ferah's eyes lit up almost comically.

"Really?! Come on, we gotta do it!" Ferah practically begged. However, before Adora could stammer out a response, Queen Angella rose to her feet after using a serviette to dab her mouth clean.

"Unfortunately, your sparring plans will need to be put on hold for now. We have a meeting in the war room in half an hour. I suggest you all finish whatever preparations you need for the meeting. Oh, and I'd put planning your exhibition match on hold for now. We all need to be present in body and mind for this meeting." She instructed before she left the dining hall. Ferah's face had fallen dramatically, to the point where Bow and Glimmer were sure that they could see tiny tears welling up in Ferah's eyes from having to postpone a match with She Ra. Adora on the other hand, looked incredibly relieved to have that conversation put on hold as she released a breath that she, nor anyone else had really noticed she'd been holding as she got up and also left the dining hall. Ferah followed her out not long afterwards, shoulders a bit slumped and her face downcast from Queen Angella putting her hopes on hold.

Half an hour later, Ferah was still feeling a little put out by having been forced to wait to even get an answer from Adora, but she put those feelings aside. She was participating in a war council, after all. She needed to at least pretend to be professional. To that end, she'd changed into the other outfit that Brightmoon's seamstresses had made for her. She stepped into the war room behind Adora and Glimmer, trying her best not to look nervous. She'd wound up sleeping through the first meeting that occurred when they reached Brightmoon, much to her chagrin, so she had to be on-point this time.

"Oh, right! We need to get you introduced to the other two princesses that are already in the Alliance." Bow suddenly remembered before he gestured to two strangers who were sitting on the far side of the room idly chatting before they noticed the newcomer and waved politely.

"That's Spinnerella and Netossa. We're not really sure what they do." Bow informed Ferah, whispering the latter half of the statement. Ferah politely waved back as Bow handled introductions before he gestured to Ferah's seat. Ferah glanced at it with surprise before turning to Bow.

"I thought I was just supposed to stand nearby and watch. Aren't only the Princesses supposed to be sitting at the table?" Ferah asked with confusion.

"I'm not a Princess and I'm on the council." Bow pointed out. Ferah crossed her arms.

"You're practically family and have been here… Actually, I don't know how long you've been here, but you've _definitely _been here longer than me." Ferah argued. Bow shrugged.

"Guess you'll have to ask Queen Angella." Bow replied. Ferah was still skeptical (and nervous. Very nervous) but she took the seat between Adora and Bow and waited until Angella and the rest of the council arrived, which consisted of only Angella herself and a dark skinned woman who was dressed similarly to the guards she'd seen around Brightmoon. She had a white scar across the bridge of her nose. She must have been that General that Glimmer had mentioned back in Plumeria.

The queen strode wordlessly to her chair and took a seat while the General took her own seat next to Glimmer.

"Alright, now that we are all assembled, let us begin. Council, we are here today to discuss plans to strengthen our position against the Horde. Does anyone have any suggestions?" Angella inquired. Almost immediately Glimmer's hand was in the air, waving frantically as she chanted 'me, me me me' in a desperate whisper. It was quite the sight to behold. Evidently, this was a common occurrence, given how the General was just looking apologetically at Queen Angella, and said queen was pinching her brow while sighing exasperatedly.

"Does anyone aside from Glimmer have an idea? Anything at all?" Angella inquired. Ferah wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she'd heard a note of desperation in her voice.

"Come on, mom! I got a great idea!" Glimmer declared, rising to her feet with militaristic precision that Ferah didn't know Glimmer could possess. Angella sighed and looked at Glimmer, making a reluctant gesture.

"Alright. Go ahead, Glimmer." Angella replied.

"I propose that me, Bow, Ferah and Adora continue our mission to recruit more princesses and rebuild the Princess Alliance." Glimmer stated. Ferah glanced between Glimmer and Angella. On the one hand, it was common sense to gather as many allies as possible against the Horde and considering every princess that Ferah had met so far (only two so far, not counting Spinnerella and Netossa) had powerful magical abilities, that was an asset that any military force would want to secure. On the other, _that _was the extent of Glimmer's plan? Ferah could have suggested that, and she knew next to nothing about military strategy. If they'd been talking single combat, then Ferah could have gone on for days. But large scale war? That was a topic that Charra had conspicuously avoided regarding combat. Not that Ferah had ever thought to ask.

"Glimmer, how many times do I need to remind you that the rest of the kingdoms chose to withdraw from the Alliance and face the Horde on their own terms. If that is their wish, then we need to respect that." Angella lectured. However, Glimmer obviously wasn't intent on backing down that easily.

"Mom… your majesty, I'm only proposing a diplomatic mission to Salineas. Look, I've seriously thought this through!" Glimmer assured her mother before she tapped a finger to the table they were sitting at. All of a sudden, a 3D projection of a map of Etheria appeared above the table, shocking Ferah enough to nearly cause her to fall out of her seat.

Once she'd recovered from the shock, Ferah took another look at the map. The territory held by the Rebellion and the Horde was displayed respectively. Peering closer, Ferah could even pick out the mountain range she'd grown up in. Charra had been very intent on making sure Ferah could read a map of Etheria.

"Look, any Horde force that intends to attack is via the sea has to go through Salineas, specifically through the Sea Gate. If we can forge an alliance with Princess Mermista, then we have complete control of the seas. We _need _the Salineans aid on this one, mom." Glimmer explained. Ferah stroked her chin thoughtfully.

"That actually sounds like a good idea." Ferah muttered as she thought about it. Glimmer beamed at Ferah before looking back at Angella, a wide, pleading grin on her face. Angella frowned and eyed the four teens carefully.

"The path to Salineas is dangerous, Glimmer. I'm not sure…" She started, only for Glimmer to interject.

"Mom, you don't need to worry! We've got _the _She Ra on our side, _and _we have Ferah! She survived on her own in the wilderness for a while! There's nothing that can't stop us with those two!" Glimmer declared dramatically.

"Umm, I don't know about Adora, but I can't walk on water or fly, so I think we'll also need a boat." Ferah pointed out.

"Alright, with She Ra, Ferah _and a boat, _there's nothing that can stop us!" Glimmer amended, still trying to keep the dramatic sound and look.

"Also, we'll need a sea captain to get there, since last I checked, none of us know how to sail." Adora added. Glimmer shot a look out of the corner of her eye at Adora before she looked back at Angella.

"With She Ra, Ferah, a boat _and a sea captain, _there's nothing that can stop us!" Glimmer tried again, but at this point the spectacle was oscillating between silly and sad. Angella just sighed again and pinched her brow.

"You will handle transportation on your own?" She asked.

"Yes." Glimmer answered instantly, back to standing at military attention.

"You'll travel to Salineas, and _only _Salineas?" Angella continued.

"Yes!" Glimmer answered yet again.

"And you'll do so for the purposes of _diplomacy only, _and will not engage in battle with Horde?" Angella pressed desperately. Glimmer vigorously nodded.

"Absolutely!" Glimmer promised. Ferah raised her hand.

"Barring self-defence!" She added. Glimmer shot Ferah a look that said, 'not helping'. Angella cast her gaze over all four of the teens before she finally gave in.

"Very well. You will travel to Salineas and speak to Princess Mermista. You will attempt to convince her to join the Rebellion and secure us the advantage in the naval battlefield. You will not attempt to engage the Horde. No unnecessary violence, and _no collateral damage." _Angella concluded. Glimmer cheered and then teleported over to Angella to give her a massive hug and a kiss on the cheek before she teleported back to the others, gathering them up in a massive hug.

"Umm, Glimmer, could you not? This is really uncomfortable…" Ferah groaned out, though her voice was a bit unintelligible due to her face being smooshed between Adora and Bow's. Unfortunately, it seemed that Glimmer wouldn't have heard her either way as she was currently _way _to happy with her mother's decision.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou, we won't let you down!" Glimmer exclaimed before she teleported them all out of the room. Unfortunately, since they'd been sitting down and/or been held up by Glimmer's impromptu group hug, Adora, Bow and Ferah all tumbled to the ground once they reappeared in Glimmer's room.

"I thought the distance you travel, and number of people caused you more strain when teleporting." Ferah mumbled from the ground as she got up and dusted herself off before she noticed that Glimmer looked a little loopy.

"Yeah, it does! Thanks for reminding me! You're a pal…" Glimmer giggled out before she started to fall over. Luckily, Adora was swift to catch her.

"Huh. Never seen this happen before." Bow muttered as he peered closer at Glimmer while stroking his chin. Ferah, on the other hand, grabbed a glass of water that had been conveniently sitting on Glimmer's desk before walking over to her and depositing the contents of the glass on Glimmer's face. Glimmer spluttered and shook her head as she snapped out of her stupor.

"Couldn't you have found something other than water?" Glimmer groaned as she got to her feet and grabbed a towel from one of the drawers in her room and dried off her face and hair. Ferah shrugged.

"It worked, didn't it? Anyway, now that we've got a plan, I'm going to go get changed before we get going." She replied before she strolled out the door and made her way down the hall and into her own room.

After getting changed into her normal clothes, Ferah began looking through her pack, rechecking inventory when she felt her hand bump across something rectangular. It felt like leather. Immediately, Ferah's heart caught before she slowly grabbed the object and withdrew it from the bag. It was a pair of journals, bound together with a length of twine. It had been so long since she'd had an opportunity to write in her own journal, she'd forgotten she'd had them. Hesitantly, Ferah undid the knot and laid out the journals in front of her. Both of them were leather-bound but were differentiated by color and age. The one on the left was a shade darker than burgundy and had more visible wrinkles than the other. The journal on the right was bound in jet black leather and the paper was less yellowed than the one on the left.

Ferah's hand slowly reached towards the older journal but stopped just as her finger was brushing the edge of the cover to lift it open. She stayed like that for a whole two minutes before she drew her hand back with a shaky sigh and eyes squeezed shut. She then opened the drawer to her desk and placed the older journal gently inside before adding the second one alongside it and shutting the drawer.

After a few more minutes of sitting at her desk, Ferah was jolted back to reality when she heard knocking at her door.

"Come in!" She called out. The door opened and Adora peaked around it.

"Hey, you ready to go? Glimmer's pretty eager to start heading over to Seaworthy." Adora asked. Ferah nodded.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Anything we need to bring along?" Ferah asked. Adora shook her head.

"Not this time. Seaworthy's not too far from here, so if we get there and hire a good ship and sea captain, we could probably get to Salineas before the day is out. Hopefully, Princess Mermista will grant us accommodations for our stay." Adora replied. Ferah nodded before she got to her feet and stepped out of the room with Adora. Glimmer and Bow were chatting just down the hall. When they noticed Ferah and Adora approaching they immediately waved excitedly.

"So, is everyone ready to go?" Glimmer asked. Ferah nodded.

"I did a bit of unpacking and a bit of repacking. I know we probably won't be spending too much time on the road, but I wanted to err on the side of caution. Ma would tan my hide if I went on a journey like this unprepared." Ferah stated as she adjusted her rucksack. It still had fresh water and non-perishable rations, though she'd gone out of her way to pick up a few more when they got back from Plumeria. Recently, her appetite had increased noticeably (too her. No one else could tell the difference) and she didn't want to be too hungry on the road.

"Well let's get going! We're burning daylight!" Glimmer exclaimed before she made a run for the gates Bow merely flashed them an enthusiastic grin, two thumbs up and then bolted after her.

"Do you think Glimmer is maybe… _too _enthusiastic about this?" Ferah asked. Adora shrugged.

"I think she's more excited that her mom is letting her go on this mission." Adora replied before she jogged off in pursuit of them with Ferah hurrying along behind. They eventually caught up to Bow and Glimmer at the gates. They were waiting patiently (not so patiently) for them to arrive, with Bow eagerly bouncing from the balls of his feet to his heels, while Glimmer was tapping her foot impatiently and had her arms crossed.

"Hey, you were the one who rushed off, not us." Ferah pointed out before Glimmer could complain about them being slow.

"But you guys were going sooo slooow! Come on, aren't you excited?! I've never been to Salineas!" Glimmer asked. Adora shook her head, but Ferah stroked her chin.

"I've never been personally, but there was someone from the village we lived near who came from Salineas. She always told me that if I was ever there, I should go to _Selene's Saltwater Taffy._ Apparently, the sweets there are to die for." Ferah said as her eyes glazed over as images of tooth-rotting, rush-inducing, sickeningly sweet, sugary delights danced across her vision.

"Uh, Ferah? You're drooling." Adora pointed out while giving Ferah a couple of shoulder shakes. Having snapped out of her sugary fantasy, Ferah's face reddened a shade before she sagged a bit in embarrassment. Glimmer grinned.

"Well, I know one place that we'll need to stop at once we're done recruiting Mermista for the Alliance." Glimmer declared as she pointed dramatically off into the distance.

"Uh, where are you pointing?" Adora asked.

"Why, in the direction of Seaworthy of course!" Glimmer replied, not moving from her previous position.

"But, you're pointing west. Seaworthy is to the North." Ferah pointed out, obviously confused by Glimmer's behaviour.

"Let me be dramatic!" Glimmer exclaimed at them, now pointing dramatically at Adora and Ferah, who just leaned back in surprise and a tinge of fear before Adora lightly pushed Glimmer's finger back.

"Well, I guess we should get going. Seaworthy isn't coming to us." Adora reminded them.

"Right! ONWARD!" Glimmer exclaimed before they began their trek. They were about ten minutes out, casually chatting when Ferah had a brief realization.

"So, what exactly is Seaworthy like?" Ferah asked as they rounded a bend.

"Oh, if half of what I heard about this place is true, it's _amazing!"_ Bow exclaimed, glee dancing in his eyes.

"It's mostly inhabited by fish people and sailors. I've heard it's a bit of a tough place if you're not careful." Glimmer added. Immediately, Ferah's interest was piqued at the word 'tough' as she imagined the possibility of getting some fights in with tough-as-nails fish people and sailors.

"Well, we better get their quickly! I wanna see it for myself!" Ferah declared before she broke into a run, followed quickly by Bow, Glimmer and Adora who were also all grinning.

* * *

"Huh. I thought it'd be rowdier."

The Best Friend Squad, as Bow had taken to calling their merry band of four, had arrived at Seaworthy a few minutes ago and so far, it had been rather quiet. For a town that was famed for sailors and how supposedly rough it was, it felt oddly quiet, as Ferah had just observed.

"I mean, I guess rumors can be exaggerated and suuuu, that is so cool!" Bow exclaimed as a shark man strode past them without sparing them so much as a glance. Ferah lightly (very lightly) elbowed Bow in the side.

"We're trying _not _to draw attention!" She hissed at him.

"Oh, like you weren't thinking of trying to fight him!" Bow shot back with a smug grin. Ferah spluttered in response, leaving Bow to confidently stride away while Glimmer shot Ferah a similar look to Bow and Adora gave a nervous smile and a shrug that said, 'he's not wrong'. Ferah trailed behind them, hunched over, arms crossed and grumbling to themselves all the way to the docks, where they immediately found a seaside bar; an excellent place to look for a ship and captain to hire. The sounds of shouting, laughter and (most importantly) fisticuffs coming from inside was more than enough to perk Ferah right back up. If she didn't have her tail wound around her waist for safety's sake, it'd probably be flicking about in excitement.

They stepped through the door and were immediately greeted with quite the spectacle. Fish men and sailors as far as the eye could see. They were drinking, laughing, playing various games involving combinations of dice, cards and chips, brawling in various states of intoxication, so on and so forth. To Glimmer and Adora, it was… something. They weren't quite sure what to make of it. Ferah and Bow on the other hand, thought this was the best thing they'd ever laid eyes on. Everyone looked like a pirate, everyone was buff, and fights were happening everywhere.

"Uh, guys? You're both drooling." Glimmer muttered. When that didn't work, she smacked them both upside the head.

"Focus! We're here to find a sea captain and a ship!" She hissed to the two of them, who both rubbed the back of their heads from discomfort and embarrassment. Ferah also made sure to tighten her tail around her waist, trying to camouflage it as a belt. She didn't want it exposed in a rowdy place like this.

"Sorry, it's just that everyone here looks like a pirate! You know I love pirates!" Bow whispered a tad too audibly to Glimmer, who just groaned and dropped her face into her hand.

"We're just here for a ship and sea captain. That's it." She replied before heading to the bar, where a _very _jacked fish woman was washing one of the mugs.

"Excuse me, sorry to bother you, but we're looking to hire a sea captain." Glimmer inquired, though her tone turned meek when the fish woman turned her steely gaze on the princess. She jerked her head towards a booth at the back where one of the most absurdly muscled creatures all four members of the Best Friend Squad had ever laid eyes on. They appeared to be arm-wrestling someone with three fish women watching intently over the shoulders of the beefy fish man. After a few moments, the one on the other side of the booth pinned the fish man's arm to the table, securing their victory.

"Haha! Victory! Another round of drinks and put it on my friend's tab!" The man in the booth called out to the bar, though there wasn't much reaction from the rest of the bar's occupants. Either they were too drunk and/or too tough to care, or this was just a regular occurrence and not worth getting excited about.

The group approached the booth, not know what to expect. After all, someone who could beat someone _that _powerful in an arm-wrestling context had to be seriously strong.

So, they were naturally confused when they saw a flamboyant looking, well built man man with dark burgundy hair, a long, straight and thin moustache of matching color. He was dressed in a white shirt with cut outs on his chest, a red neckerchief, a blue jacket, brown braces, dark gray pants and brown boots that reached past his knees.

"Why, hello there! Would you by chance be yet another challenger? I'll have you know that I am undefeated in the art of arm wrestling!" The man declared.

"Oh, sorry sir, we aren't here to arm wrestle. We're interviewing sea captains for the job of ferrying us to Salineas. We were referred to you." Glimmer explained as she sat down at the seat the fish man had just been occupying and laced her fingers together in preparation for negotiations.

"_interviewing?_ My friends, do you mean to tell me that you have not heard of the legendary Sea Hawk?!" The man exclaimed. The girls glanced around between themselves while Bow suddenly became _very _excited.

"Your name is Sea Hawk?!" Bow asked in awe, though he was immediately cut off by Ferah.

"Should we have heard of you?" She asked. The man gasped and dramatically slapped a hand over his heart.

"My dear girl, you wound me; _wound me _I say! Well then, allow me to introduce myself! I am Sea Hawk, master and commander of the seas! And for the record, I do not _interview _for positions. I am offered them." Sea Hawk declared with a hint of smugness to his voice. Ferah, Adora and Glimmer all gave him a deadpan stare while Bow just continued to stare in awe at the man.

"Well, we don't exactly know anything about you aside from your name and having 'sea' in your name is not a qualification." Glimmer muttered. Sea Hawk suddenly leapt to his feet and dramatically slammed one of his boots onto the table. Ferah could already tell that, should they select him, the voyage was going to be a long one.

"Well then younglings, allow me to enlighten you! I once ran the 50-klick Galebreath Gauntlet in less than 20 klicks and maneuvered the Serpentine with nary a chip in my bow! My shanties are so desirable, sirens fling themselves into sea at the sound! And because you are obviously wondering, my mustache is _naturally_ shiny." Sea Hawk bragged before stroking said moustache. Ferah had to agree, the moustache was incredibly shiny.

"So shiny…" Bow whispered as he gazed upon the shimmering 'stache.

"Of course, my employ is contingent on whether or not you can afford me." Sea Hawk added with a smirk.

"I assure you Captain Sea Hawk, price is no object for us." Glimmer stated. Ferah couldn't help that they were wading into a unkind waters when she saw the gleam of amusement in Sea Hawk's eyes as he dramatically pulled a small roll of paper from somewhere in his coat and handed it to Glimmer, whose eyes widened to the size of saucers. Ferah looked over Glimmer's shoulder, let out a surprised yelp and fell backwards in shock.

"There is no way that price is worth it!" She shouted from the floor, drawing strange looks from the rest of the patrons of the bar.

"I can assure you that I am worth every coin." Sea Hawk stated, though it was clear from Adora and Glimmer's looks that Sea Hawk's claim was in doubt. Ferah frowned in thought. There was no way that Angella would let them _live _if they paid that obscene price for this guy, but that was weighed against the fact that, by the sound of it, this guys was their best option.

Suddenly, Ferah had an idea. She glanced at the others in the Best Friend Squad before her eyes locked with Adora's. She could tell that they'd come to the same conclusion, based on the smirks that were creeping across their faces. Now it was a case of who got to execute the plan. Adora motioned with her hand to Ferah, whose smirk widened.

"May I propose an alternative?" Ferah asked. Sea Hawk grinned.

"I don't see why not." He replied, gesturing welcomingly with both arms. Ferah grinned and motioned for Glimmer to get out of the seat. She looked confused but acquiesced with Ferah's request. Ferah took the seat and slammed her right elbow down on the table.

"A competition with the following stakes: I win, you take us to Salineas without seeing so much as a copper. We lose, we leave you alone and you never have to hear from us again. Deal?" Ferah challenged. Sea Hawk grinned.

"That deal is atrocious, but far be it from me to turn down a challenge! However, as I warned you, I am undefeated in arm wrestling! Allow me to show you how it's done, young lady!" He announced before he slammed his own elbow on the table and locked hands with Ferah. The contest had begun.

Ferah made a good show of struggling against Sea Hawk while Adora and Bow cheered her on. Glimmer was very non-plussed by this display, though she did watch it intently as she wanted to fix the look of shock upon Sea Hawk's face when Ferah put his hand right through the table.

"This contest is already won, missy! I once bested a Tyrosaur with biceps the size of my _head _in an arm wrestling contest that lasted _two weeks!"_ Sea Hawk boasted. It was at this point that Ferah decided that she'd let this charade go on long enough and dropped the veil of struggle before she began to slowly, agonizingly push Sea Hawk's arm down towards the table before she stopped, a mere centimeter away from victory.

"What were you saying about a Tyrosaur?" She asked sweetly before she tapped his arm to the table. There was a round of cheering from the rest of the Best Friend Squad as Sea Hawk stared at his hand in shock and disbelief. After Ferah finished a round of high fives with the Best Friend Squad, she turned her gaze back to Sea Hawk.

"So, about that trip to Salineas?"

* * *

**And that's where we'll end it for today! I really liked this chapter. Actually, it might be one of my favorites. Stuff just… clicked for it.**

**Creativity: Um, boss? Can we wrap it up quick, we got that **_**other thing **_**to take care of.**

**Author: Oh yeah, right. **_**That.**_

**So, real quick, those **_**voices **_**that showed up at the beginning of the chapter are going to become more recurring. Not every chapter, but they'll be common. I might also start making them a little more clear on what's being communicated, but it's not super important right now. That second voice though, that will get important later, for varying reasons. You'll see why.**

**Creativity: I thought we were keeping it brief.**

**Author: I am. That's all I wanted to get in for now.**

**So with that, I'll bid thee farewell. Thank you for reading, please review and we'll see you next time!**


End file.
